


daisies

by alnima



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Clueless Louis, Farmer Niall, M/M, Minor Zarry - Freeform, Misunderstandings, Small Towns, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 04:20:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13605399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alnima/pseuds/alnima
Summary: “I wish I understood you,” Louis mutters, dropping squash down on his plate before he sets the bowl back down on the table.“There’s not much to get,” Niall assures him, smiling as he passes the peppers.Louis wishes that were true, that Niall was really that simple. To Louis, he’s a puzzle- not one of those one hundred or five hundred piece ones. No, Niall is a one thousand piece puzzle, and no matter how many pieces Louis connects: there’s always more. He’s intriguing and exciting and ridiculous but he makes Louis’ stomach roll in pleasant waves as he listens to him talk. And that’s something.It’s more than something, and Louis is glad that he asked for a redo.





	daisies

**Author's Note:**

> I've finally stayed true to one of my fic writing promises to myself and wrote something other than Zarry! I've had this idea for a while when a friend sent me a Nouis moodboard that I've lost and wish I could find again. Lots of people to thank because writing a fic takes a village, didn't you know? So, thank you to Leigh for reading this all over and listening to me as I wrote this. You're always the best and I appreciate your help. Thank you to Mo, who read one scene for me and gave me mounds of feedback that let me know it didn't suck like I thought. And to Katelyn, who settled the tiebreaker and also listened to me about this, despite Nouis not being on her radar. And to Jill who I have to bully to write her own fic, which motivated me to write this. It took five seasons of Gilmore Girls but I'm finally finished! Enjoy!! 
> 
> The title is because ages ago I saw one of Yuzu's Nouis art where Niall called Louis daisy and it's all I ever think about now.

Louis’ car breaks down in a cloud of smoke.

There’s no bang, but there is a gurgle and a noise that sounds like his car is screaming like a tea kettle when it’s hot enough before it sputters to a stop. Louis manages to get it off the road, but because he’s so far from civilization and decent society, there’s no shoulder, and he has to park in the grass like an animal.

Louis closes his eyes and leans back against his seat. He breathes out slowly before he hits the steering wheel, cursing.

He’s in the middle of actual nowhere. Houses are spaced out miles apart, and there hasn’t been a building in sight in at least a decade. He’s stranded on the side of the road and his car is still smoking angry puffs of grey. It’s obviously a miracle that the entire thing hasn’t blown up.

This is the reward he gets for being low on cash and buying the first heap of crap that he saw in his price range. Also, the reward he gets for being absolutely clueless about cars.

Louis takes his seatbelt off and digs through his crap for his phone. He finds it under a hat and then promptly chucks it on the floor when he sees that it’s dead, and with the car dead and dying, there’s no way he can charge it.

So…this is how Louis goes, he supposes. Broken down car in the middle of nowhere. It’s not glamorous, by any means, but it seems oddly fitting.

+

The grass on the side of the road isn’t comfortable but Louis lies on it anyway. If he’s going to be stranded here, he might as well get some sun so he can speed up the process of turning into road kill.

There’s some giant bird circling around overhead, and Louis’ isn’t certain, but it’s probably some kind of vulture of sorts that want to pick him apart. He’s really not even sure if birds prey on humans but he’ll find out, he’s sure, which is entirely his luck.

Louis can hear the grumbling of a car in the distance but he doesn’t bother to get up or do anything other than throw his arm over his eyes. It’ll be the fifth car in the last however long to zip past him. Louis doesn’t care to look like a fool trying to flag down another car.

The grumbling stops and Louis jerks when he realizes that it’s actually stopped next to him. He jumps up and stands and stares at the blonde-haired boy squinting at him from out of his passenger window.

“Do you need some help?” He asks.

“My car broke down,” Louis explains, waving towards the pathetic wisps of smoke still spewing from his car.

The stranger nods, glancing ahead on the road before he rolls his truck forward, parking it in the grass. He stumbles out of his truck, wearing a tank that shows off most of his ribs and loose jean shorts.

“I’m not sure what you can do for it,” Louis says, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I’m supposed to be meeting some friends but my phone is dead, so I haven’t been able to call them, and I’m not sure what to do.”

Louis’ glares at his car and feels anger tightening in his stomach all over again. It’s a shitty car and if he didn’t have to work, he could have just driven down with Harry and Liam, in Liam’s perfectly _nice_ car that doesn’t break down on the side of the road. Louis’ would be in a nice cabin somewhere in the middle of nowhere, instead of on the side of the road. Still in the middle of nowhere, but the cabin would be a vast improvement.

“Well, I don’t know about meeting your friends anytime soon in this car,” the stranger says.

Louis groans and kicks his tire.

The stranger smirks at him, running his fingers through his blonde hair. “I could give you a ride,” he says,

Louis’ eyes narrow as he takes the man in. He doesn’t _look_ like a murderer. But this is a small town and they _are_ in the middle of nowhere, and Louis has seen enough horror movies to know that this is where everything bad in the world happens. But it’s late afternoon and while it’s summer, Louis’ doesn’t want to stay out here and become bear food or wolf food, or whatever predator is lurking in the woods behind him.

“My house is just down the road,” he adds. “You can use the phone and wait for your friend. You don’t even have to wait in the house if you don’t want to.”

Louis considers him for a moment before he sighs, tossing his hands in the air. “Might as well,” he mutters. “What about my car?”

“I’ve got a friend that I can call for you. He works at a shop and can get someone down here to tow it in for you. The shop is closed now, though, so it’ll be tomorrow before someone can come get your car.”

“Figures.”

“And you might want to get everything important out of it,” he says. “And lock your doors, obviously.”

“Right,” Louis mutters, sighing as he goes to search through his car. He grabs his phone and the charger off the floor and shoves his hat on his head because it makes it look like he actually brought something important to him.

Louis pops the trunk and grabs his car keys, shoving them in his pocket as he glances up at the stranger. He’s leaning against the bed of his truck, arms folded over his chest and smirking at Louis.

Louis yanks his suitcase out of his trunk and drags it across the pavement. It doesn’t have wheels so it mostly bounces around, slapping the ground and hitting him in the ankles as he goes. The stranger helps him throw it into the bed of the trunk and then he’s climbing in, starting in the engine while Louis’ follows.

+

“I’m Niall,” the stranger finally says, introducing himself as the roads start to twist dangerously.

Louis has a firm grip on the door handle, trying not to let it show how terrified he is that Niall takes the turns as fast as he does. It feels like he’s on a rollercoaster instead of sitting in some stranger’s truck and heading back to his possible murder dungeon house.

“Louis. I’m Louis,” he answers, fisting his jeans when Niall takes his eyes off the road for a second to consider Louis.

“You’re not from around here.”

“No, thankfully,” Louis grits out, wincing as it feels like the car is going to go sailing off the road. It doesn’t. Niall handles the turn like a professional, barely batting an eye at it all.

+

Niall lives in an old white farmhouse. The siding is weathered and peeling away in some parts. It looks like it’s been there for ages, with its wraparound porch and screen door where the screens starting to peel away in the corners, leaving it floating in the wind. Niall’s left the front door unlocked, the inside door left wide open so the summer air can filter in through the screen.

The house is surrounded by open land with a red barn a few paces from away. There are fields of plants and a bigger vegetable garden on the side. Louis can see pigs and sheep and horses, a couple of cows in the distance. It smells a bit like manure but it doesn’t look like the place people go to die so Louis relaxes a little.

Niall points him in the direction of the nearest outlet so that Louis can find his phone and then says that he’ll be around if Louis needs him for anything. He doesn’t seem at all bothered by a stranger in his house. It feels like typical small town mentality, to not question or worry about some stranger, but instead to invite them in your home.

Neither Liam or Harry answer Louis’ calls. He tries them both thirty times each, leaving increasingly more threatening voicemails that he whispers into the phone so that Niall can’t hear him. If he’s killed in this house, then that is entirely on them.

Resisting the urge to snoop through Niall’s house for his torture dungeon, Louis follows the noise and finds Niall in the kitchen cooking. The ticking clock hung on the faded yellow walls tells Louis that it’s nearing dinner. Louis is immediately grateful that his stomach doesn’t growl when he breathes in the smell. It smells good and Louis’ is starved.

“I can’t reach my friends,” Louis says.

Niall jumps slightly and then glances over his shoulder at Louis. “You want something to eat?”

“Oh,” Louis mutters, shaking his head. “No, I’m okay. I just wanted to let you know that I’m trying. I’m going to keep trying.”

“There’s plenty.”

“I’m not trying to impose.”

Niall shrugs. “You’re really not.” He points at one of the chairs at the table, raising his eyebrow at Louis until Louis drops down and sits. Niall smirks. “There really is enough.”

“Okay,” Louis mutters, tapping his leg under the table. “Do you live here alone?”

“Usually,” Niall says.

“It’s a big house for one guy.”

“My friends tend to find their way here more often than not. There’s plenty of spare bedrooms, so I don’t mind. Plus, it’s nice having people here,” Niall explains. “It’s never really empty. Anyway, dinner’s about done if you want to wash up.”

“Oh, sure,” Louis says, jumping up to wash his hands. He watches Niall drop food on the plates before setting it down on the table. He waits for Louis to finish before he slides in, and then they’re sitting in awkward silence – awkward for Louis, at least – and eating together.

Louis’ phone doesn’t ring. Louis’ phone doesn’t chime with a text. Louis’ phone doesn’t do anything besides sit heavily in his pocket as he enjoys the food that Niall prepared.

It’s a nice quiet meal and Louis is grateful for it, but as soon as it’s over, he heads out to sit in one of the rocking chairs Niall has on the front porch and tries Liam and Harry once more.

It’s getting dark and Louis is beginning to lose hope. He’s starting to feel panicked and stranded, because no one is answering him, and he’s at a strangers house – a stranger who is decent enough to give him a place to wait, but it’s getting dark and that means Niall is going to want to turn in for the night.

Louis’ leg is beginning to shake nervously because he has no idea what he’s going to do. He has some cash but he doesn’t know where a hotel or even a dodgy motel is, and even if he did, he’d have to ask for a ride because places like this don’t have cabs or Uber. He’s stranded, completely and utterly stranded.

“Hey,” a soft voice calls and Louis glances up to see Niall leaning against the screen door. “There’s a spare room if you need it.”

“They’re usually pretty bad at answering their phone on a good day, but they’re never this bad,” Louis says because he feels like he has to explain himself. “Don't know what’s going on.”

Niall shrugs. “It’s all right. Service is pretty shit out here, so depending on where they’re at, they’re probably not even aware you’re calling them,” Niall explains. “But I can give you a ride to look at your car tomorrow.”

“This is so invasive,” Louis mutters, picking at the hem of his shorts. He hates feeling like a burden and that’s what this is, him burdening Niall with taking him for the night because his car is a heap of crap and his friends are completely useless at coming to his aid.

“It’s what people do,” Niall says. “They help each other. So come on, I’ll show you to your room. ”

Louis looks at him for a moment, studying Niall carefully, trying to take him all in. With a sigh, Louis stands, pushing himself out of the rocking chair that his ass was beginning to meld together with.

Niall walks him up a set of stairs to the second floor of the house and then pushes open a door at the end of the hall. He flicks the light on to reveal a small room with a big bed in the middle. It’s covered in a quilt that looks homemade and looks so stupidly comfortable that Louis almost sags in relief that he gets something decent to lie on after such a shit day.

“Bathroom’s across the hall. Keep the towels in the cabinet under the sink, if you need one. Just chuck it in the basket if it’s dirty. You watch TV downstairs if you want, or you can find something to eat in the kitchen if you get hungry. If your friend finally calls you back, you’re free to go, obviously. You’re free to go now; I’m not going to hold you hostage” Niall laughs, running a nervous hand through his hair. “I just mean, if he ends up calling you back, you’re good to go.”

“Thanks,” Louis says. “I’ll uh, probably stay though, since I don’t know where my car is going.”

“Oh, it’s going to Floyd’s. It’s on 29. Keep going down this road, and then take a left on 13, then that’ll take you to 29. Hang a right, and if you pass by Newton’s Market, you’ve gone too far.”

Louis nods and feels as his brain struggles to process any of that information. “You honestly lost me at 29,” he admits, causing Niall to laugh.

“I’ll write it down and leave it next to the front door. Just grab it if you go. If it’s gone, then…well, I guess I’ll know what happened to you.”

“Guess you will,” Louis replies, smiling at Niall in return as he backs out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Louis stands there, listening to the floor creak as Niall retreats down the hall and then moves back downstairs. He waits for a beat, listening to Niall move through the house before he drops down on the bed with a sigh.

Of all the things that he thought of when he left his house this morning, he definitely didn’t imagine staying in a stranger’s house but here he is, face shoved in an unfamiliar pillow on an unfamiliar bed – an incredibly comfortable unfamiliar bed, at that.

+

Louis wakes and has to peel his face off the pillow. He’s covered in sweat, thanks to the hot summer sun beating in through the windows. He blinks a few times, his vision coming into focus to see a fan on the ceiling, off and mocking him.

“Fuck off,” Louis groans, kicking off the quilt.

It’s a horribly horrific way to wake up – to be so hot that he’s sweating, but he’s awake. He survived a night with a stranger in a small town. It’s a miracle and Louis is grateful to have woken up not once, but twice. The first time was far less pleasant than waking up covered in sweat. The first time featured a rooster and Louis spent an hour staring at the wall and wondering what other clichés Niall had on this godforsaken farm.

Louis digs through his suitcase for something clean to wear, yanking it away from the door where he kept it propped throughout the night. So maybe he had a little help surviving the night, like a locked door and his suitcase pressed against it so it’d cause a bunch of noise if Niall tried to sneak in in the middle of the night. So what. Who cares.

Louis has to do what he has to do, now that his friends abandoned him.

There’s a small window in the bathroom, covered by blinds. Louis peeks outside and sees Niall in the garden, shirtless, tossing food on the ground for the chickens.

“Is this kid forreal?” Louis mutters, shaking his head before he drops the blinds back and hops in the shower.

Niall is still downstairs when Louis finally steps out of the shower, wearing clothes that aren’t drenched in sweat, and smell like laundry soap instead of-- he doesn’t even want to think about what. He checks his phone as he takes a seat on the back porch, seeing nothing. He tries Liam and Harry once more, but neither of them answers.

With a sigh, Louis leans back, watching Niall feed his animals.

It takes an hour for Niall to find his way back to the house, a basket in his hand filled with veggies and eggs. Louis wants to make a comment but he can’t think of anything creative enough this early in the morning when he’s hot and hungry. Plus, he doesn’t want to push the whole…being alive thing he still has going for him.

“You want breakfast?” Niall asks, pulling the back door open. He pauses to look at Louis, considering him briefly. “Sleep okay?”

“Yeah, fine,” Louis says, nodding. “Breakfast is fine.”

“All right. I’ll get started. Any luck with your friends?”

Louis checks his phone once more and sighs, shaking his head. “No, nothing.”

“That’s all right. I’ll take you to the garage after we eat. They should have your car in,” Niall explains, motioning for Louis to follow him inside. “I’ll text my friend to make sure. He works there.”

“Thanks,” Louis mutters, wondering why a stranger is far more helpful than any of his friends.

+

Apparently, Louis is going to be the only one surviving the middle of nowhere, because Louis’ car is dead and dying.

Some mechanic named Floyd explains to him that they’ll need to ship a part in because they don’t have it if Louis wants his car up and running instead of being turned into scrap metal. It’ll take days for them to get it, and when Louis suggests another shop take care of the problem, Floyd informs him that would take extra time _and_ extra money, neither of which Louis has.

He tries not to lose his actual mind because this is more than he expected but it’s his fucking luck, to have his car break down in the middle of nowhere and then to have his friends completely abandon him.

Louis is going to throttle Liam when he sees him if he ever sees him again because it was his freaking idea to stay at his grandpa’s cabin because it’s the cheapest option and they’re all low on cash. But Louis is going to be absolutely dead on cash with this whole thing because now he has to pay for his freaking car and it’s just great.

It’s absolutely fantastic.

Luckily, Niall hasn’t left. He’s messing around with another shop mechanic, probably the one he mentioned as being his friend.

“How’s your car?” Niall asks, face flushed as he shoves his friend away.

“It needs a new thing. I don’t know; something under the hood needs to be replaced. It’ll be a few days.”

“It’ll be all right,” Niall assures him. “This is the best shop in fifty miles.”

“It’s probably the only shop in fifty miles,” Louis mutters, causing Niall to laugh. “My friend still won’t answer me. I don’t know what—“

“You want a ride or do you want to go back to my place and wait?” Niall asks, shoving his friend away when he opens his mouth like he’s about to protest to that.

Louis looks at him and sees the name Zayn stitched on his shirt and a calculating look on his face like he’s not sure how he feels about Louis or the idea of Louis at Niall’s place. Like _Louis_ is the suspected murderer and not the murder victim.

“A ride, maybe,” Louis says, ignoring Niall’s friend Zayn. “It’s not that far from here.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket and pulls up the address, turning it around so he can show Niall it.

“‘Bout thirty minutes from here,” Niall says, nodding as he pulls his keys from his pocket. “Your friends definitely don’t have signal though, which explains why they haven’t answered you.”

“Yeah, well… They could have still come to look for my dead body.”

“I’ll be sure to leave it somewhere obvious,” Niall laughs, shaking his head as he strides passed Louis towards his truck.

Louis has a brief moment of panic before he realizes that Niall is _laughing_ so he has to be joking. Zayn’s not laughing though; instead, he’s looking at Louis like he’s memorizing every curve of his face to give to a police sketch artist if he needs to. Louis resists the urge to stick his tongue out at him.

+

The road leading to Liam’s grandpa’s cabin is made of gravel. It’s bumpy and Louis rocks around in Niall’s truck but it’s a nice change of pace because Niall can’t take the turns at a million miles per hour so Louis hasn’t seen his life flash before his eyes in the last ten minutes, meaning the knot in his chest is gone.

Niall seems to know where he’s going, finding the short drive to the cabin easily. He pulls in slowly, navigating the steep drive with a practiced ease that only someone who drives these kinds of roads frequently has.

Liam and Harry are standing outside when Niall pulls to a stop. They look confused, sharing a look before frowning at Niall’s truck.

Louis breathes out, patting his palms on his thighs. “Well, this is me,” Louis says, unbuckling his seatbelt and turning to smile at Niall. “Thanks, for everything. I really appreciate you not killing me.”

Niall smiles. “Of course. Thanks for not killing me.”

Louis laughs, pushing open the door and hopping out. He slams the door shut and then leans against the door, hanging in the window. “Thought about it, but wasn’t sure where you kept the torture chamber.”

Niall’s laugh is bright and loud, his entire being morphing with it. Louis watches him for a moment before he sighs, slapping the side of the truck. “’Kay, well I better be going. Thanks again.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Niall says, tapping his thumbs against the wheel.

Louis moves around and yanks his suitcase out of the back. He sets it down and then watches as Niall drives off with a wave out of the back window.

“Who was that?” Liam asks.

“You have to take my suitcase inside because you left me to die on the side of the road,” Louis says, turning to glare at his friends. “I was supposed to be here yesterday and neither of you thought, ‘oh hey, where’s Louis at?’”

“Thought you changed your mind and decided to come late,” Harry says. “You tend to do that.”

“Who was that?” Liam repeats, heaving Louis’ bag up like it’s stuffed with air or cotton balls, something lightweight, and not half of all of Louis’ clothes because he wasn’t sure how bearable the weather was going to be and what kind of shoes he would need because Liam mentioned hiking and swimming in creeks and it’s too much to think about in the three weeks he had to pack.

Louis shrugs and then tosses his hands in the air because who is that? Louis has no fucking clue. “Some farmer that found me on the side of the road and took pity on me.”

Harry nods. “He was pretty cute.”

Louis rolls his eyes because that’s not the point. And he didn’t even notice; he was too busy fearing for his life, thank you very much.

“Why did he drive you here? And why did he find you on the side of the road?” Liam asks because someone tends to ask the decent questions and Louis is grateful because he’s been preparing his dramatic retelling of this story.

So Louis tells them. He tells them about the angry thunderclouds erupting from his engine, the vultures waiting to swoop down on him, all of the cars refusing to stop for him until Niall finally did, and then about having to spend the night at Niall’s place because he was completely forgotten and stranded by his best friends.

“We’ll have to run back to the shop in a few days to talk to that mechanic,” Louis sighs, dropping down on the couch and watching as Liam tosses his suitcase into the corner.

“That’s fine,” Harry says. “We’ll need more food by then, I bet. Ice, as well. Liam bought this massive block, and it’s working pretty well, but it’s hot as shit here so I don’t know how long it’ll last.”

“Why does this stuff only happen to you?” Liam jokes, causing Louis to flip him off.

+

Louis is impatient so he drags Liam and Harry to the mechanics. Drags meaning, he begs and pleads until Harry announces the ice block finally melted and they need more ice and Liam finally agreed to use his precious gas to take Louis to the garage to pressure them about progress on his car.

The unimpressed mechanic – Zayn – that Niall was messing around with is there, looking unwaveringly cool and at ease, with a stripe of grease down his cheek. His hands are dirty and his hair is slicked back. He’s wearing coveralls, grey in color and unbuttoned to show a tattooed chest.

“Parts are still on the way,” Zayn says, shoving a rag in his back pocket.

“They were on the way two days ago.”

“I can’t really do anything about transport, as I’m standing here and not driving the truck.”

Louis scowls because the guy is full of snark. Normally, Louis likes that kind of thing. Today, however, he wants to snark back and he’s going to do it better. “I can see that you’re standing here since I’m talking to you,” Louis replies.

“And the part is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to your car,” Zayn says. “Have you ever actually had it looked at before besides, like, just a glance at as you drive by?”

Louis grits his teeth and breathes out. “Last time I was here you said that—No, last time some other guy said that it was just some thingy that connects to another thingy and not anything else,” Louis says, frantic and a feeling a little out of control. “What else is wrong with it?”

“You needed an oil change, wiper fluid,” Zayn says, ticking everything off on his fingers and Louis feels the onset of a migraine when Zayn informs him that one of his headlights is out, which if Zayn had _asked_ he’d know that if you rock back and forth in the driver’s seat three times and then kick it in just the right place, it flickers back on.

But Zayn didn’t ask that instead he replaced the bulb and fixed the faulty wiring along with a laundry list of other things that is apparently wrong with Louis’ car.

“Well, just write a new car on the bill at this point,” Louis mutters, rubbing his face tiredly.

“It’s better than driving a death trap,” Zayn retorts. “Besides, all the shit I have to do to your car, I don’t mind doing the little things for free.”

Louis eyes him at that, wondering what the catch is. No one fixes a million repairs on a car just out of the kindness of their heart. There’s a catch but Zayn’s not giving anything away.

Louis stumbles when someone collides with his side, leaning against him momentarily before pulling away. Louis turns and glares, seeing that it’s Harry.

“That’s so nice of you,” Harry says, beaming at Zayn.

Zayn looks at him, eyes traveling from Harry’s ankle to the top of his head.

“Louis has been really worried about his car,” Harry adds, shifting around before he finally leans against an older car that’s jacked up. “You seem like you know what you’re doing here. I mean, you have a job here so you must. How long have you been fixing cars?”

“A while,” Zayn answers. “My dad taught me.”

“Oh, wow,” Harry says, eyes widening with amazement.

Louis rolls his eyes and rubs his temples once more. The migraine is fading but Louis thinks it might flare up again if he’s forced to listen and witness Harry flirting with this mechanic, especially now that Harry is pretending to know shit about cars besides how to drive one.

“Is your car ready?” Louis turns, expecting Liam back from grabbing the food they need and a new ice block. Instead, it’s Niall, wearing loose jean shorts and a white shirt. He doesn’t look like he stumbled off the farm but he looks nice if a bit sweaty.

“Oh, no,” Louis tells him, shaking his head. “The whole thing is fucked. We’re going to take it apart and give it out at Halloween.”

Niall smirks. “Really?”

“Yes to it being fucked but no we’re not taking it apart.”

“Zayn hates doing that,” Niall says. “But I’ll make sure it gets taken care of, don’t worry.”

Louis’ eyes narrow as he looks at Niall. He’s not dressed like any of the other mechanics so Louis isn’t entirely sure if he works at the garage, but he’s here and last Louis saw, his truck was running. Maybe he has some kind of tractor or riding mower that he needs to be fixed or some other kind of small town transportation that slows down traffic.

“Do you work here?” Louis asks.

Niall laughs, shaking his head. “No, I don’t. Remember the friends I mentioned that like to crash at my place?” Louis nods and Niall points in Zayn’s direction. “I like to bug him and now I get to tell him how to do his job.”

“You’re not telling me shit,” Zayn laughs, chucking his dirty grease towel in Niall’s direction. “Don’t you have places to be?”

“Nope. I penciled you in. Two o’clock: bug Zayn.”

“You’re late,” Louis points out, nodding towards the clock on the wall. “It’s almost three.”

“Yes, well, some of us have shit to do,” Niall says. “We’re not all visiting small towns and having fun this summer.”

“Oh, we’re having loads of fun,” Louis mumbles.

“It’s definitely getting better,” Harry says, smiling at Zayn.

Zayn doesn’t seem to notice but Harry doesn’t falter. Louis isn’t sure if he should tell him to back off or not because Zayn looks at him, in the brief seconds Harry’s paying attention to other people and he eyed him up when he first arrived, so Louis isn’t sure. Plus, Zayn’s kind of hard to read.

“Though, we’re definitely open to suggestions,” Harry continues on. “Is there anything around here that you guys like to do?”

“Besides watching paint dry?” Louis jokes. Niall laughs but Zayn looks at him like he’s bored, like he really doesn’t care what Louis has to say.

“Who watches paint dry?” Liam asks, sliding in next to Harry, twirling his keys around on his finger. “Your car okay?”

“No one, and not yet,” answers Louis, shrugging when Liam raises his eyebrow at him. “Harry’s just asking what there is to do here.”

“There’s the pig race,” Niall says.

“The what race?”

“The pig race.”

Louis has to look to the sky because honest to god, what is this place?

“Is it self-explanatory or is there something else to it?” Liam asks because it’s the million-dollar question: what exactly is a pig race?

“Self-explanatory,” Zayn says.

“Right, of course,” Louis says. “What else could a pig race be besides an actual race of pigs? Who would have thought?”

“Are you going to be there?” Harry asks, directing his question at Zayn.

“Everyone in town is going to be there,” Zayn replies.

Harry nods like he gets that much. “Does that mean you too?”

“Yeah, he’s going to be there,” Niall says.

Harry beams. “We were saying earlier we were thinking about going. It sounds fine.”

Louis makes a face and wishes he could say something. He wants to say something. He wants to say something so badly that it feels like he’s going to start salivating like a dog that wants a bone. Saying something to Harry is his bone.

“We were?” Liam asks, beating Louis to his bone but it’s fine because Harry elbows Liam in the ribs and mutters something through gritted teeth that Louis can’t hear but bets is some kind of threat.

“So we’ll see you there?” Niall asks and Louis turns to see he’s directing the question at him, wanting to know if Louis is going to spend a precious evening of his life at a pig race.

“Yeah, I guess I’ll be there,” Louis says and Niall beams, in every sense of the word.

+

Liam finds a canoe in his grandpa’s storage shed. They spend the better part of the morning trying to strap it to the roof of Liam’s car. It takes almost every bit of rope they can find plus Harry and Louis clutching onto it while Liam drives down to the creek to keep it secure.

It’s summer and the water is mostly empty, with a few people floating down in inner tubes or in rafts, beers in hand and waving at the three of them.

They manage to flip the canoe shortly after getting in it, floating just a few feet before Harry rocks one way as Louis is reaching for his paddle out of the water and it flips. Liam manages to get it righted and all of their stuff out of the water while Louis is rubbing creek water out of his eyes, gasping and wondering what the hell just happened.

The water is calm and the current is slow, so Louis lets his paddle drag in the water to create the illusion of helping as Liam does all of the work in the back. Harry’s completely useless, as he is, stretched out in the middle with his feet crossed at the ankle and hanging over the side.

“So how are we going to get out of going to this pig race?” Louis asks, slapping the water and watching as the ripples spread across the surface.

“Why would we get out of it?” Harry asks.

Louis snorts. “Why wouldn’t we? I vote that we actually schedule a dentist appointment because it’s probably going to be a more worthwhile experience, which brings a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘I’d rather get teeth pulled’ or whatever it is.”

“Why are we sacrificing teeth to avoid pigs?” Liam wonders.

“We’re not,” Harry protests, rocking the canoe as he struggles to sit up properly. “Don’t you want another excuse to see your farmer?”

“Shut up,” Louis grits out, lifting the oar just to slap it down into the water, causing Harry to get splashed. Good. He deserves it, for this and for tipping them earlier. “All the more reason not to go.”

“No, this will be fun,” Harry whines, digging his toes into Louis’ ribs and Louis splashes him again. “No one does this kind of shit in the city. I want to see what it’s like.”

“It’s kind of weird,” Liam says.

“Of course it’s weird,” Harry agrees. “That’s exactly why we should do it.”

“You only want to go so you can see that mechanic.”

“I’m not even going to deny that,” Harry says, kicking Louis in the back. “He was really nice. And he’s pretty. Plus, he’s fixing up parts of your car for free, that’s pretty cool.”

“He barely spoke to you.”

“He was at work,” Harry protests, violently rocking the canoe as he tries to jump up. “You can’t give a non-paying customer all of your attention. He was trying to be a respectable employee.”

“He was looking at me like he wanted to stomp me with his boot,” Louis retorts.

Harry snorts and Louis turns around to see him rolling his eyes, moving his mouth as he mocks Louis.

“Wait,” Liam says, dropping the paddle in his lap so he can hold his hand up to stop Louis from replying to Harry. “You get that farmer. Harry gets that mechanic. What the hell do I get?”

“The pleasure of our company,” Harry says, grinning. “And besides, we don’t get anything. They’re people, not prizes.”

“You know what I meant.”

Harry shrugs. “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t.”

“They’re not prizes but that doesn’t mean I want Niall.”

“Oh, you know his _name_.”

“Of course I know his name, I slept in his guest room while you two ignored my calls.”

“I’m not going to be designated driver,” Liam shouts, shoving his paddle back in the water to navigate them away from a tree that’s fallen down.

Harry snorts once more before lounging once more. “Please, no one drinks at a pig race.”

“How would you know?” Louis asks. “You ever go to a pig race?”

“This is a small town; they drink but not at a pig race. Why would they ever want to drink around pigs?”

Louis rolls his eyes and turns back to face the front. He resists the urge to splash Harry again just because he can, and just because Harry is bothering him.

+

Zayn and Niall failed to mention that there would be so much mud involved with a pig race. Louis’ feet are caked in it and his _white_ shoes are _brown_ now. They’re not entirely caked but it’s enough that it feels difficult to walk in some parts of this field they’re set up in.

There are different wire fences put up and arranged, keeping different animals contained. There are a few horses but it’s mostly pigs; pink pigs, black pigs, spotted pigs. So many pigs. They’re wearing ribbons. Louis supposes that’s the way they keep track of them because, as far as Louis is aware, all of the pink ones look exactly the same.

Aside from the pigs and the corrals, there are booths set up selling hotdogs and burgers. Barrels filled with ice and water, soda, and beer.

It’s not the worst place Louis has ever been but his shoes are covered in mud, and his shoulders hurt because he forgot to reapply sunscreen while they were canoeing, so it’s not entirely pleasant.

“I don’t see Zayn anymore,” Harry says, craning his neck to try and see around the crowds.

People are staring at them like they know they shouldn’t be there. Maybe they shouldn’t. They are outsiders, after all. But no one says anything to them so Louis continues following Liam and Harry through the crowd, apologizing when he accidentally bumps into someone because he can’t control his feet in the mud.

Louis finds Niall fairly easily, moving through the crowd in mud-covered boots. Harry spots him as well and says as much.

“There’s Niall,” Harry says, pointing and waving his finger around in Niall’s general direction. Liam grabs his wrist and brings his hand down to his side as other people follow his pointing. “Why isn’t he with Zayn?”

“He’s ridiculous,” Louis says, shaking his head as he stares at Niall, unable to take his eyes off him. “He’s wearing cowboy boots.”

“Those are galoshes, for the mud,” Liam informs him.

“Cowboy galoshes,” Louis mutters, narrowing his eyes as those lame boots. He hates them. They’ve offended him... he just hasn’t figured out why yet.

“What is he doing here if he’s not with Zayn?” Harry continues like no one has said anything. “Are they dating? Go ask him.” He nudges Louis with his elbow, trying to push Louis closer to Niall despite the fact Niall is too far away for a simple nudge.

Louis pushes Harry back and then pinches his rib for good measure. “No, you go ask him. I don’t care.”

Louis waves them off and then moves away from them. He leaves them there and decides to wander, wanting to see what else the pig race has to offer. He finds a booth with kettle corn and grabs some, deciding he’s going to need a snack when the big show starts. He also grabs a beer because there’s not a chance in hell he can get through a pig race without some kind of alcohol.

“You came.”

Louis turns and sees Niall standing in front of him, a beer in his hand and a smile on his face.

“Of course, I had to make sure you weren’t kidding about an event like this.”

“Would never kid about a pig race.”

“Oh, I can tell this is totally serious. Are local politicians here? International news or strictly local?”

“They’re trying but the line is so long getting in here, who knows if they’ll make it.”

“Oh yeah, it’s so far I had to park my car at some random garage,” Louis jokes, making Niall laugh. “Anyway, is this for real or is it some secret gambling ring?”

“Yes to for real, and no to the gambling,” Niall says, falling in step next to Louis as he starts to walk. “People used to be able to place bets but no one ever actually won any money. You’ll see how hard it is to predict the winner when it officially starts, but then one year someone won and it,” Niall pauses, breathing out and shaking his head. “It wasn’t pretty.”

“Fistfight or pig fight?”

“Mud fight,” Niall says, grinning.

Louis can understand the urge. He kind of wants to fling a bit of mud at Niall when he smiles like that.

“It was fun,” Niall admits. “Better than the pig race.”

“I can’t imagine anything better than this,” Louis sighs, hoping that his voice isn’t dripping with sarcasm.

They continue to walk until they find Harry, Liam, and Zayn sitting in the top row of a set of bleachers. They join them, taking their seats and Louis shields his kettle corn from them as he munches on it, watching as the bleachers begin to fill up slowly.

There’s some guy shouting into a loudspeaker how the race is going to start in five minutes. He’s standing in the middle of the track, just outside of the corral that the pigs have been transported to. There’s no system like with a human race, no starting line, just a corral keeping them contained.

“How does this work?” Liam asks.

“An air horn goes off and the pigs race,” Zayn says, shrugging. “People try and scream from the bleachers so their pig wins, a pig crosses that spray painted line, and then it’s done. Everyone stays and drinks while the pigs continue running around. Kids feed them. If Adam gets bored, he’ll start a fire to keep people out here longer, or at least those without kids, and that's it.”

“Wow, this place is thrilling,” Louis mutters.

“Who is Adam?” Harry asks, frowning at Zayn. “Point him out.”

“Harry,” Liam mumbles, nudging him.

“Adam is the guy who organizes this,” Niall explains. “He’s the guy screaming into that microphone.”

“He’s wearing a cowboy hat,” Harry says. “I could wear that hat.”

“Your head is too big,” Louis tells him.

“So is yours,” Zayn tells him, smirking as he takes a drink of his beer.

Louis wants to say something but Niall beats him to it. “It’s starting,” Niall says, nudging Louis so he has to spin back around and face the pigs.

The man, Adam, yells through the loudspeaker, counting down the beginning of the race. There’s a loud banging noise and then someone is running open the corral’s fence, letting the pigs loose. It takes them all a moment to figure out that they’re free to go but once they figure it out, they’re off.

It’s mostly running in circles, colliding into each other. No one bothers them; no one interferes or manipulates the race in any less than decent ways. Instead, everyone stands back and tries to cheer the pigs on.

“How can anyone tell what pig is what?”

Niall shrugs. “It’s harder to tell up here unless their ribbon is that neon blue. It’s mostly just about the fun of it, being able to scream without being asked to stop,” Niall says. “People love yelling.”

“People love the sound of their own voice.”

“I know you do,” Niall teases, gently nudging Louis.

In the end, Niall’s pig is the one that ends up winning. It’s a small little pink one with a purple ribbon. There’s a black spot surrounding one of her eyes and she wins by sheer accident after stumbling around, chasing another pig before she dives into the mud on the other side of the finish line. Niall doesn’t even realize she’s won until Adam is shouting his name through the loudspeaker.

“You had a pig in that race?” Louis shouts over the crowd. “You had a stake in this and you didn’t tell me?”

“Maple runs every year,” Niall says before he stands and then waves while someone a few rows in front of them shouts something rude that makes Louis want to start this year’s mud fight because it’s not Niall’s fault that his pig is better than everyone else’s.

“What do you get for winning?” Liam asks when Niall’s sat back down and Adam is shouting about something else.

Niall shrugs. “Never won before. Probably just bragging rights.”

“The pig gets a ribbon,” Zayn adds. “An additional ribbon.”

“That too.”

“And there’s a coupon to Adam’s steakhouse.”

“You have a steakhouse?” Harry asks, perking up. Louis knows what he’s thinking. How he’s thinking about Zayn and him going to the steakhouse together.

“You don’t win any money?” Louis asks.

“I don’t want money,” Niall explains.

“God,” Louis groans, throwing his hands up in the air. “Where did you come from? What do they put in the water around here? Harry, buy bottled. I’m not drinking the water at the cabin anymore.”

“Bottled is bad for the environment,” Harry points out and Louis, hoping that his face looks thoroughly unimpressed when he swings around and points at the water bottle in Harry’s hand. “This is all they had. What am I supposed to do, shove my face in that bucket with the pigs?”

“Please do,” Liam says, smirking.

“I have to go get my picture taken,” Niall says, standing. “You four finish arguing about the water until I get back.”

“Your picture taken?” Louis cries, already scrambling up to follow after him. “I’m not going to miss this.”

The picture is a simple one; Niall standing next to his pig and holding a blue ribbon before he sticks it to the pig’s purple ribbon. She looks unimpressed with the whole thing, oinking and trying to get away so she can go dive back into the mud. Niall pulls away from her and his shirt is coated in mud.

Louis can only hope that the pictures are for sale locally because there’s not a shot in hell anyone is going to believe him when he goes back home and explains that he was at a pig race and this is a thing people do.

+

Adam ends up creating a bonfire. Louis ends up spectacularly drunk. So does Liam and Harry, Zayn too if Louis were to do a head count. Though, Louis seems to be drunker than everyone else is. Everyone but Niall-- Niall, who had to help round up pigs and sat back watching everyone else drink and act like complete assholes in front of a fire.

Because it’s night and the roads are dark and winding, they all end up in Niall’s truck, leaving Liam and Zayn’s cars behind.

There’s a trailer attached to the back of his truck where the pigs are. More than one, Louis notes, so Niall is a dirty rotten liar and had a hoard of pigs involved in that race or he just likes carting them all around for fun.

“You’re a pig racer,” Louis says, watching as Niall checks that everything is secure in the trailer. “How many of them did you compete?”

“Just one,” Niall answers. “It’s better to transport with more than one, so I brought a few. It’s better, especially when it comes to keeping them in those pens with a bunch of strangers.”

“You’re so odd,” Louis notes, watching as Niall smiles at him softly. “I’m sitting in front.”

“Go ahead,” Niall says, dusting his hands off and moving towards the truck.

Louis has to shove Liam out of the way so that he can climb into the passenger seat, leaving the rest of them to squeeze together in the back. Harry seems thrilled about it, making note of how cozy it is to Zayn.

It’s not cozy for Louis. Louis is able to stretch out and prop his elbow on the window without a worry of who he might be hitting because Niall is half an arm’s length away.

It’s a whole other feeling, driving to Niall’s house with his friends in the backseat because they’ve had too much to drink and it wouldn’t be safe for them to drive back compared to when he was first in Niall’s truck. This time, Louis is counting on Niall to keep him safe instead of worrying about what is going to happen to him. He’s able to close his eyes and press his head against the glass of the window and feel as the road twists and turns on the drive.

Niall tosses Zayn the keys to let them all in so that he can take care of the pigs and check on the other animals. Louis decides not to follow him around and bother him; instead, he follows the others inside and helps himself to a glass of water in the kitchen.

No one acknowledges or talks about how the night is going to play out, if everyone is going to crash here or if they’re going to sober up before heading out. Which is fine because Louis’ head is starting to hurt so he finishes one glass of water and then starts on another, waiting for Niall to come inside and give him some pills for his head.

“You remember where your room is?” Niall asks, reading bottle labels before he hands one over to Louis.

“Sleep here once and I have a room?” Louis says, taking the pills. “Thanks.”

Niall laughs. “No, you don’t have a room. I just meant the room that you had last time,” he says. “Zayn sleeps in another one when he crashes here, so you’re free to take that one. Someone will have to double up, or take the couch. I don’t know. Whatever works for you guys.”

“So we are sleeping here, then,” Louis notes, nodding. “No one said.”

“Is that okay?”

“No, it’s fine. I just wasn’t sure if we were here to absorb all your pills and drink all your water so we could make it back.”

“If you want to do that, you can.”

“I don’t really care one way or the other, I just wasn’t sure, but now I am.”

“Louis, you don’t have—“

“Shut up,” Louis interrupts, laughing as he downs the rest of his water. “It’s seriously not an issue. I just wasn’t sure. Now, show me where your movies are. Does this house play movies? Is that, like, a thing that can happen here? Does your TV have the bunny ears? Will someone have to stand outside and hold the satellite up in the air to get it to work?”

“Of course this house plays movies,” Niall says, rolling his eyes. “And I don’t even think they make those kinds of TV’s anymore.”

“Some people still have them. My grandma has one of those ones that sit on the floor with the knobs that you have to turn. It twists around though, so when we manage to get it to work, we always point it towards the kitchen so we can watch movies at dinner.”

“You could just sit in front of the TV.”

Louis ponders that and then shakes his head. “No, can’t do. Now, seriously, show me what movies you have.”

Niall’s collection is small but covers enough genres that Louis doesn’t feel like he’s missing too much of anything. He crowds the shelf that they’re on so Harry can’t choose one of his cheesy movies that Niall _actually_ owns and not even ironically it seems because he comments on how one of them are good. He thinks they’re good movies. He actually thinks they’re good movies. Further proving Louis’ point that Niall is a ridiculous human being who likes rom coms and putting his pig in a race and stopping for strangers on the side of the road.

“Why are we watching _National Treasure_? ” Liam asks, handing Louis a glass of water when he sits down in the middle of the couch, right between him and Niall.

“It’s the greatest movie of all time,” Louis informs him. “And I’m not watching _Con Air_.”

“Why do we have to watch anything with Nicholas Cage in it?” Harry asks.

“Because.”

“Because you were blocking everyone else from looking at the movies?” Zayn asks, or at least Louis thinks he’s asking it. It seems like he might be making some sort of snarky remark, Louis isn’t sure. Louis isn’t even sure Zayn _likes_ him very much.

“We could have watched _literally_ anything else,” Liam says.

“Literally anything else doesn’t involve people stealing the Declaration of Independence, so is it really something we want to invest our time in?” Niall asks, crossing his feet at the ankles and resting them on the table.

“He gets it,” Louis says, holding his fist up for Niall.

Niall bumps his own against Louis and smiles, doing it twice in a row before he drops his hand down to his side. Louis follows the movement and sees how Niall flexes his fingers before gripping his thigh.

When Louis looks up, Zayn watching them both carefully, hazel eyes calculating the scene in front of him like there’s something happening besides two people fist-bumping over _National Treasure_.

+

Louis wakes with minimal head pain. It’s not as hot in the room; he remembered to turn the fan on before he fell asleep this time. So Louis isn’t sticky or miserable. Instead, he’s able to wake up slowly, rubbing tiredly at his eyes before he wanders over to the window and spots Niall outside.

Louis watches him for a while; dropping down in the chair Niall has shoved in the corner so he doesn’t have to waste precious energy standing while he watches. He’s feeding the animals and laughing, like they’re saying something funny or doing something, or maybe he’s one being funny with them.

It’s redundant and tiresome but Louis doesn’t get Niall. He’s _so_ ridiculous, in ways that Louis has never seen before and he doesn’t get it.

Harry finds him like that, sitting in the window and watching Niall outside. He has some smug smirk on his face as he leans against the door and informs him that breakfast is ready.

“Unless you’re too busy,” Harry says. “I’d hate to interrupt this moment you’re having.”

“What moment?” Louis says, unfolding himself from the chair. “He’s riding a horse.”

Harry frowns and tries his best to look confused. “Who is?”

“Niall is. Niall is riding a horse.”

“People tend to do that.”

“Not real people,” Louis protests, checking the window again to make sure that it’s not a mirage. “The only people who ride horses are ones posing for those trashy romance novels old ladies read.”

“Lots of people read those,” Harry says, grabbing Louis by the elbow and tugging him towards the door. “And are you imagining Niall as your trashy romance novel man?”

Louis shrugs him off and doesn’t answer that. He’s not going to dignify ridiculous accusations with an answer. Harry’s just as ridiculous as Niall is, bouncing around on the back of his horse in the heat like a ridiculous farmer. Country dude. Cowboy. Horse riding man. Whatever he is. Ridiculous. All of this is ridiculous. Louis is going to petition to change this town’s name to ridiculous because that’s what this is.

Breakfast is spread out across the table buffet style, with Liam and Zayn already digging in without waiting. Liam has a piece of bacon hanging out of his mouth as he tries to pour himself a glass of juice. Zayn looks at Louis but offers him a nod so Louis smiles at him and hopes they can bury the hatchet, whatever the hatchet is.

Louis makes grabby hands until Liam passes the juice and Harry hands him a cup with a soft sigh, dropping down in the chair Louis is standing next to and Zayn is sitting next to. Louis glances up at the sight of movement and sees Niall stepping off his horse. He’s grabbing the horse by the reins and walking it towards a corral. Niall leaves the horse and then steps inside, lifting his shirt and wiping sweat off his forehead. It exposes his stomach and—

“Louis, you’re spilling juice on the table,” Harry cries.

Louis startles, jumping at Harry’s outcry. He curses, scrambling to grab a towel to stop it from dribbling onto the floor.

“Sorry,” he mutters, grabbing his juice and dropping down in the first chair he sees. He honestly doesn’t even know if anyone is occupying it and he has to check, has to glance around and count heads to make sure that he’s not sitting on one of his friends or a ridiculous farmer or his friend.

“You okay?” Niall asks, taking the seat next to Louis and handing him a plate and a fork. Yes, Louis needs those to eat. That’s why he’s here, for breakfast.

Louis smiles and takes the plate, noting that Niall’s nose is bright red from the sun. “I’m fine, just got lost in my head for a moment.”

“Anything interesting up there?”

“I have no idea,” Louis tells him, stabbing a pancake and dropping it on his plate.

“Niall, has anyone told you that you look like a love interest in a romance novel when you ride that horse?” Harry asks, dropping his head in his hands and grinning wickedly.

Louis wants to kick him in the ankle.

“Uh, no,” Niall mutters, rubbing the back of his neck as his cheeks flush. “Is there a reason you’re saying this?”

“I didn’t say this,” Harry states.

“Zayn, who was that guy you were talking to at the pig race last night?” Louis interrupts, trying not to smile when Harry whips around in his chair to stare, his mouth dropping open. “Liam, pass the bacon?”

“You’re awful,” Niall mumbles, laughing under his breath as he takes the bacon from Liam and passes it over.

“He’s done worse,” Liam tells him.

“He deserves it,” Louis informs them both. “Calling you the lead in a romance novel. Everyone knows you’d star in western.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Niall laughs, shaking his head as he steals some bacon from Louis.

Louis breathes out carefully and then smiles because that seems to be the word of the day.

+

Liam’s grandpa owns a large plot of land that he’s been nurturing since Liam was little. Louis remembers coming the summer after he first met Liam, when there wasn’t any grass surrounding it, just rocks and dirt when the pond in the back was nothing but a puddle with only a couple of lily pads and frogs. It’s different now. Better, but different.

Now there’s actual grass for Louis to drag a chair across and plop down on to sit in the sun so he can regret his life and his choices later when his shoulders are fried and Harry has to rub green goop into his skin.

“We should have gone somewhere where there are actual things to do,” Louis complains.

“We just went to a pig race. I don’t know how much more excitement I can take,” Harry states.

“My dad said that my grandpa locked away the dirt bikes when he heard Louis was coming,” Liam says and Louis sighs.

“I’ve never done a thing to that man.”

“You nearly lit the shed on fire, you broke the deck, and ignoring everything that happened down here, you backed into his mailbox right after you got your license,” Liam reminds him.

Louis pushes his foot out and tries to kick Liam, whichever part of him is closest. When his foot collides with something and he hears Harry whine, Louis swings the other way until Liam kicks him back.

“We should light the shed on fire again,” Louis muses, wondering how quickly Liam’s family would know without any sort of phone call what’s happening because they always have some sort of supersense when Louis is up to no good. It’d bring entertainment to his day and that’s what he needs: entertainment.

“What do you think Zayn’s doing?” Harry wonders aloud and Louis swings his foot back to kick Harry again. “You want to do something. He’s something fun.”

“He hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you.”

“No, I think he hates him,” Liam agrees.

“That’s not true,” Harry protests. “You’re just so alike that I’m sure he’s just trying to figure you out.”

“That makes no sense,” Louis cries, feeling offended. “How can you hate someone just because you have shit in common and might be similar? Which, by the way, I don’t even know if that’s true because he barely speaks to me.”

“He’s shy.”

“He hates Louis,” Liam corrects. “He gives him weird looks. He’s cool with me and we talked for a while, and he’s really cool with you, but he seems to hate Louis.”

“Maybe because Louis is putting the moves on his best friend?”

“What moves? What friend?” Louis asks, wishing Liam’s grandpa left the gravel so Louis can throw small pebbles at Harry.

Harry snorts and rolls his eyes. Louis is too busy glaring at him to pay attention to what Liam is doing but he’s sure he’d want pebble for him if he saw it.

“Louis, it’s hardly a hidden fact,” Harry says, trying not to laugh. “He’s cute. Super cute. And he’s great.”

“Super great,” Liam mocks.

“I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What are the signs of sun poisoning because you’re both beginning to talk shit and I don’t want to hear it,” Louis says. “Jesus, I think I’m going to have a sunstroke or something, I need to go inside.”

“Denial isn’t a pretty look on you,” Harry shouts after him and Louis flips him off over his shoulder.

He can’t make out what Liam says but it makes Harry laugh. Louis makes sure to slam the cabin door shut so they know that he’s not happy with them.

+

“Why did you do that?” Louis asks, freezing when he notices Zayn sliding down the garage door and checking that it’s locked. “Is it because you saw me coming?”

“Or it’s because it’s closing time?” Zayn says, tapping his hand against the sign showing the shop’s hours.

“What’s going on?” Liam asks, falling into step next to Louis.

“They’re closed,” Louis says, throwing his hands up. “I told you driving below the speed limit would do this.”

“They’re still working on your car,” Zayn says. “Parts are in but it’s not finished.”

“It’s still not finished?” Harry says and Louis groans once more. “I like your uniform.”

Zayn smirks at that, wetting his lips like the compliment actually means something. Like Zayn’s not dressed like a bunch of middle-aged guys, one of them balding, though that doesn’t seem like a problem Zayn’s _ever_ going to have to deal with. And if him not hating Louis isn’t enough, then Louis thinks he might hate him just for the simple fact that he’ll never worry about hair loss, because after all of this with his car, Louis is going to lose at least two-thirds of his hair.

“I’m going to have to buy a house and find a job here, aren’t I?” Louis shouts, turning to stomp off because he’s earned the right to stomp off, but he bumps into Niall.

Niall’s smiling at him, catching Louis by the elbow stop him from tumbling over. “We’d be lucky to have you here,” he says.

Louis rolls his eyes.

“How many of those do you have?” Harry asks like Louis hasn’t said anything. “That one isn’t your color. Not like you need to wear a special color, but I imagine someone like you has a color. You have a color, don’t you?”

“Was it your idea or his to come down here?” Niall asks, tearing his eyes away from Harry to smile at Louis.

“It was mine. We don’t have signal, as you know, so it’s not like I can figure out what’s going on with it.”

“Did he encourage it?”

“He practically begged to come,” Liam says, shaking his head. “Lou, I’m gonna wait in the car. It’s your turn to pull him away from Zayn.”

“Gee, thanks,” Louis mutters because he won the rock, paper, scissors tournament, which means he’s not in charge of Harry. Louis just assumes leave him stranded here and let Zayn figure out what to do with him. “Do you want Harry responsibility?”

“I actually have Zayn responsibility I think,” he says, glancing over Louis’ shoulder. “Probably not as difficult as Harry responsibility is.”

“Does Zayn actually like him or should I have a talk with Harry?”

Niall shrugs like he’s not sure. “Think he might.”

“Might?”

“He hasn’t said either way, but he’s normally pretty good about deflecting people he doesn’t like. I think he’s just waiting to see if Harry will make a move instead of flirting like a teenager, or whatever Harry’s doing,” Niall says, squinting.

Louis turns to see Harry gesturing around wildly. Louis is three hundred percent sure that he knows the exact story that Harry is telling – the same one that he tells every time he’s interacting with someone he likes because he thinks it makes him look cool. The story where Harry talks about the time he went bull riding and lasted ten seconds before he fell off and sprained his wrist. Because nothing says ‘please fall for me’ quite like a mechanical bull story does.

“Not sure if it’s better or worse that Zayn might like him back,” Louis muses, breathing out as he looks back at Niall. “Harry’s a bit insufferable at times. Though, I guess it’s good Zayn likes someone.”

“You want Zayn to like you?”

“As a human being, sure.”

“He likes you.”

Louis snorts. “I’m pretty sure saying it doesn’t make it true.”

“Zayn just—“ Niall sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. “I think he’s just nervous about you because you’re new and you’re not from around here. And he’s, well, I don’t know.”

Louis’ eyes narrow as he takes him in, studying Niall carefully. He’s leaving something out. Some key component of why Zayn would choose not to like Louis.

“Zayn’s just wary. He’s protective,” Niall explains. “I’ll talk to him about it. It’s really not you. He doesn’t mind you. I’ll talk to him though.”

“Protective? What does that mean?”

“It just means what it means. He worries.”

“He worries? What does that have to do with anything? Why is he worried about me? Do I give off bad vibes? Is it because my car broke down because that’s entirely out of my control and he should know that; he works with cars.”

“No, it doesn’t have anything to do with cars,” Niall says, looking frustrated with himself and the situation. “Just forget about Zayn. I’ll talk to him. I know you know that he’s a great guy, and it’s nothing personal. He’s just my friend and this is a small town, so there’s not many—I don’t know. It’s different for me. I’ve never really looked before, not like he has. So he just worries and he likes to analyze things. It’s not personal.”

Louis nods and feels like Niall is speaking in another language to him or something, or like he’s trying to explain how to solve a mathematical equation because nothing he’s saying is making any sense.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about right now.”

“Good, it’s probably for the best that you don’t understand.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Niall closes his eyes and breathes out slowly, his cheeks bright red. “Anyway, um. Do you wanna come over to my house tonight for dinner?” Niall asks, staring at the concrete instead of at Louis.

“Yeah, sure.”

Niall’s head snaps up and his eyes are wide. “Really?”

Louis shrugs because he doesn’t have any plans besides sit around the cabin with Liam and Harry. And the food at Niall’s place is always really good, and he has signal and a working television. It’ll be nice.

“Okay, then I need to head back to my place. Come over at seven.”

“Seven sounds good,” Louis mutters, watching as Niall walks away, turning back to look at Louis over his shoulder with a grin. Louis watches as he gets in his truck and drives off.

+

When Niall’s door swings open, his smile drops a fraction before it picks back up again, like it never happened.

“You’re earlier,” Niall says, rubbing at his reddening cheeks. “I need a bit more time with dinner but come in. Come in and just stay in the living room.”

Niall rushes off without another word, tripping over his feet and then colliding into the wall in his rush to get back to the kitchen. Louis shares a look with Liam before he steps into the house, listening to Niall’s cursing in the kitchen. There’s the sound of banging metal and something that sounds suspiciously like Niall colliding with his own kitchen table.

“Should we check on him?” Harry asks.

Louis nods and follows behind Liam and Harry into Niall’s kitchen, where Niall is frantically pulling plates out of the cabinet. There’s only two on the table, filled with food. There’s two glasses and a small jug that’s empty now but Louis imagines that it was going to be filled soon. Louis doesn’t even realize music has been softly playing until it stops and Niall turns to look at them, his shoulders dropped and his gaze on the floor.

Niall sets the extra plates down on the table and then tries to ration out the small amount of leftovers onto them, pulling from the two plates already made until it looks like Louis’ grandmother’s plate at Christmas- filled with sample size spoonfuls of each food.

“Is Zayn coming?” Harry asks, shrugging when Louis looks at him.

“Uh, yeah,” Niall mutters, scratching his jaw. “I’m gonna step outside and call him to see where he’s at.” He doesn’t look at them as he leaves, the door swinging shut behind him.

Louis takes a step forward slowly like he’s worried he might startle Niall, even though he’s outside and has no idea what Louis is doing. He looks at the plates and studies them all. There’s not enough food here for the four of them, definitely not enough food for the five of them. There are two places at the table that look intentional and carefully put together.

“I don’t think we were supposed to show up tonight,” Liam says quietly.

“He invited us,” Louis protests, frowning.

“Us or you?” Liam asks, raising his brows when Louis looks up at him.

Louis bites his lip and tries to think back on the conversation that he had with Niall earlier. They were talking about Zayn and Harry, and then about Zayn’s dislike and indifference for Louis. The conversation was about other people, was about their respective friends, and then Niall asked if he wanted to come to Niall’s for dinner. There wasn’t any kind of transition away from that conversation and how was Louis supposed to know how many people were invited to dinner or not when there’s no transition from four people to two people.

Louis isn’t a mind reader.

How is Louis supposed to know who or what isn’t allowed at Niall’s place for dinner? People, normal people who don’t live in a town of fifty, clarify these kinds of things. There’s never any confusion in the city. Louis is always aware of who he is or isn’t allowed to bring to dinner because people tell him. Louis doesn’t need to access a hidden superpower that doesn’t exist to figure out what’s going on.

“If we were meant to be here, don’t you think Zayn would have already been here?” Harry asks, looking at Louis with akin to pity in his eyes. “Just a thought.”

Louis doesn’t need a mind reader to know that his friends are onto something.

He takes a deep breath and heads outside, closing the door softly and gently. Niall is sitting on one of the deck chairs, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Niall doesn't look upset or like he’s been crying, so that’s good, but he doesn’t look like he’s moved since he walked out nearly ten minutes ago.

Louis takes the seat next to him and waits, rubbing his palms on his thighs. Niall doesn’t look up, doesn't give away any signs that he knows Louis is there. Louis would assume he has no idea if it weren’t for the way his shoulders are tense.

Louis has never been very patient and he doesn’t imagine starting now, so he takes a deep breath and says, “Was it supposed to be just me and you tonight?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Niall mutters, voice muffled.

“It kind of does.”

Niall sighs and it sounds like his chest is caving in with it. He finally looks up but he doesn’t look at Louis, just straight ahead where the pigs are. “It’s just a misunderstanding, don’t worry about it,” he says. “Zayn is bringing a pizza. I didn’t make enough for everyone.”

Louis frowns. “He doesn’t have to do that.”

Niall shrugs. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I didn’t realize you just wanted me here.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“I wouldn’t have brought them if I knew.”

“Louis, it doesn’t matter,” Niall breathes out, finally turning to look at him. His mouth does something that Louis thinks might be a reassuring smile but it’s not convincing.

“Can you please stop saying that?” Louis groans, frustrated with himself and all the ‘it doesn’t matter’s’ that Niall is tossing out.

Niall shrugs and Louis thinks he doesn’t know what else to do. Maybe he fucked up royally. It wasn’t even intentionally. Louis didn’t invite Liam and Harry to reject Niall in some horribly backward way that only some kind of asshole would do. That’s not what this is. That’s not something Louis would do. He doesn’t even think that’s something he’d want to do.

There’s the unmistakable sound of a car approaching and even from the back porch, Louis can hear the front door slam shut.

“There’s Zayn,” Niall says and he smiles. It doesn’t reach his eyes and it doesn’t even look genuine but Louis smiles back, watching as Niall heads back inside.

Louis sits there and closes his eyes, letting his head fall back until it hits the house.

He doesn’t know how long he’s out there before the back door swings open. He’s expecting Liam or Harry, checking to make sure that he’s not run away or something. When he opens his eyes, the very last person he expects to see is Zayn leaning against the door and watching Louis.

“There’s pizza,” he says.

Louis nods because he knows. He’s aware. “Did Harry send you out here?”

“No, he told me to leave you alone. To give you some time.”

“And you decided against that because?”

Zayn shrugs and it’s effortless like some cool guy plucked right out of a movie. “You know he likes you, right? I mean, if this whole thing didn’t clue you in already- you know that he likes you?”

“Is that why you hate me?” Louis asks.

Zayn sighs and steps out on the porch, letting the door shut behind him. He looks in through the window, watching the other three before he turns back to Louis and says, “I don’t hate you.”

“You don’t like me.”

“I don’t trust you with Niall.”

“Well, after tonight I don’t really blame you,” Louis mutters. “I didn’t realize he—We were talking about you and Harry, then he asked. I thought that meant he wanted me to bring Harry, which clearly means I need to bring Liam.”

Zayn wets his lips and nods. “Right. Well, there’s pizza and Niall’s going to eat it all if you don’t come in.”

“I’ll be in, in a second,” Louis says. Zayn stares at him for a second before he heads inside. He doesn’t say anything, though it looks like he wants to but decides against it.

Louis stays out on the porch until it sounds like the other four have started a movie until he starts to feel like some of the farm animals are staring at him and plotting about how they’re going to be the middle-of-nowhere-small-town murderers that finally kill Louis because of what he did to their beloved owner.

+

They manage to find a small lake a few miles from the cabin. It’s small and still, with a grassy beach that’s overgrown from lack of use and a boat ramp that’s collapsed. The dock is made of cement with loose gravel and overgrown grass but Louis’ lays towels down on it anyway.

Harry’s floating on a couple noodles that he’s tied to a broken rod sticking out of the dock and Louis isn’t sure where Liam is, but he thinks he might be next to him if the snoring is any indicator. Louis hopes that it’s Liam snoring and not some rabid animal that’s come slinking out of the trees to eat them both. Only, the animal needed a nap because he knows eating both of them is going to take some work.

The theory is honestly making Louis a little too scared to open his eyes and check that it’s Liam.

“So, you really ruined your date with Niall last night,” Harry says and Louis does open his eyes at that. He sits up so quickly that his vision starts to spin and it takes him a moment to figure out which Harry he should be properly glaring at.

“Yeah, I know. Is there a reason that you’re bringing this up now?” Louis asks.

Harry shrugs. “Kind of bored. Wasn’t really sure what else to say.”

“You could say that you think you left the stove on.”

“We don’t have a stove.”

“Doesn’t matter. Point is, you could say literally anything else,” Louis proclaims, crossing his legs. His back kind of hurts from lying on the gravel and now that he’s moved, he’s not sure he’ll be able to lie down once more. “And we could argue that you and Liam ruined the date, actually.”

“How could we have done that?” Harry asks, dragging his fingers along the surface of the water like he’s making angels on the surface. “We weren’t invited but you brought us anyway. So, again, that’s your fault.”

“You weren’t invited, and that’s why it’s your fault,” Louis protests. “And anyway, he never even said it was a date.”

“You know what they say about assuming,” Harry starts, before he laughs.

“So every time someone asks if I want to do something with them, I should ask them to clarify if it’s a date or not?”

Harry sighs and uses his hand to paddle in the water so he can turn and look at Louis. “No, but it’s been obvious that he’s into you. I don’t know how you’re so blind.”

“I’m not blind,” Louis protests weakly. “I’m not. I was right about Zayn not liking me.”

Harry rolls his eyes. “Don’t start that again.”

“It’s true, though. I asked him. He said he doesn’t trust me with Niall.”

“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t like you. It means that he cares about his friend, he doesn’t know you, so he’s suspicious of you,” Harry explains. “And why do you care if he likes you or not? You talk about him enough that it makes me wonder if that’s who you wish you were dating.”

“I don’t want to date him,” Louis says, rolling his eyes. “And it just bothers me—not being liked.”

“Or because you like Niall and you want his friend to approve of you.”

Louis groans and tosses his hands up in the air. He doesn’t know what he wants besides this conversation to end. He leans over and shakes Liam awake and says, “Harry’s bullying me. Make him stop.”

“Mkay,” Liam mutters, rubbing his nose before turning his head to the side. He blinks awake slowly, squinting at Louis before he nods and closes his eyes once more.

“Liam, you’re supposed to save me,” Louis whines, stretching his leg out so he can push Liam with his foot, digging his toes into Liam’s thigh until Liam turns his head back to the side and looks up at Louis. “Hi. Good sleep, sleeping beauty?”

“Better if you stopped touching me,” Liam murmurs, swatting the air with his hand in the direction of Louis’ leg. “What’s this about bullying?”

“Harry threw a rock at me and called me ugly. Defend my honor.”

Liam nods and sits up, rubbing his eyes with his palms. “Harry, don’t throw rocks.”

“Throw rocks at you if you pick his side,” Harry warns, trying his best to look threatening.

“Why was I woken up?” Liam asks, looking between the two of them in confusion.

Harry looks at Louis expectantly, with a soft of challenge in his eyes like he wants Louis to explain what was happening, what it was they were talking about. Louis isn’t going to do that. He folds his arms over his chest and looks away, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes.

Louis knows that the date is a topic he’s been avoiding since they left Niall’s place last night. It had been awkward and uncomfortable, with Niall avoiding looking at Louis and sitting quietly. There was a giant elephant in the room that’s been following Louis since they left. He hadn’t known what to do then and he doesn’t know what to do now.

Louis didn’t _know_. He didn’t know that anything was happening out of the ordinary. Niall’s nice and he’s had all of them at his place before. Louis still can’t figure out where their wires got crossed. He doesn’t understand how he was able to screw things up so astronomically.

Niall has gone above and beyond to be kind to Louis, even when he was mentally accusing him of being a murderer. He’s nice and he’s been helping Louis out with his car, making sure that Zayn and the other people at the shop are fixing Louis’ car. And Louis isn’t going to lie to himself, maybe to Harry and Liam, but Niall is cute. Niall is more than cute and that’s a pretty solid point in Niall’s favor, along with the kindness and the helpfulness.

Niall’s a genuinely good person who enters his pigs into races, who rides horses and tolerates his roosters crowing at the first spot of sunlight. He helps strangers destined to be vulture food without wanting anything in return. He’s offered his spare bedroom to practical strangers because it wasn’t safe for them to drive.

Niall is great. Louis knows this. He wouldn’t have rejected him if he had known. Louis knows this. He _knows_ this…but Niall doesn’t. Niall doesn’t know that Louis wouldn’t reject him.

With a sigh, Louis flops back onto his towel and tries not to groan when his head hits a small but pointy rock.

+

Louis doesn’t really care about learning the inner workings of a small town market. It’s never been something that he cares to know. So while Harry and Liam stroll the aisles for more food for them, Louis cons Liam into giving him the keys to the car. Liam gives him a knowing smile and promises that they’ll text him when they’re done.

It takes Louis a while to figure out how to get there, but when he sees the drive to Niall’s house, he breathes a sigh of relief.

Louis finds Niall out back in the garden. He’s not wearing a shirt and his shoulders are bright red. He’s wearing a wide-brimmed hat that makes Louis smirk to himself, wishing he could make a remark about how ludicrous Niall looks. And it all comes back to that, to how ridiculous Niall is. Louis likes it. He doesn’t get it, but he _likes_ it.

Niall’s picking tomatoes and dropping them in a basket. He doesn’t seem to be paying attention to Louis. Niall doesn’t even seem like he knows Louis is there.

“Exciting plans for those tomatoes?” Louis asks and Niall jumps, nearly falling over as he spins around to look at Louis. So he wasn’t actually ignoring Louis and hoping he goes away. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

“No, you’re fine. Didn’t hear you drive up.”

Louis nods and shoves his hands into his pockets. “Thought maybe you were avoiding me.”

“No reason to avoid you,” Niall says before he bends back over and resumes picking tomatoes. “Everything okay? Is your car fixed?”

“No idea, I’m driving Liam’s car.”

“Where’s Liam at?” Niall asks, still avoiding Louis’ gaze.

Louis sighs and drops down on the ground so he’s not looking down on Niall. “He’s at the store,” Louis says, picking some dried dirt off the basket. “Listen, I know you probably don’t want to talk about it but not talking about it really isn’t in my nature, so I have to say something. But I’m only going to say one thing. And the thing I’m going to say is: if you wanted to try dinner over again, I promise not to bring my friends with me.”

“You don’t owe me any favors,” Niall says, staring at the tomato plant in front of him.

“This isn’t a favor.”

Niall turns to look at him and he doesn’t look like he believes Louis. “I know you don’t think much of me,” he sighs, dropping the tomatoes. “It’s fine. I just figured I’d try. And, surprisingly, I’ve been rejected in worse ways.”

“I swear that wasn’t rejection,” Louis assures him, nodding when Niall raises an eyebrow at him. “That was me being confused. And I feel fine about you. I don’t know. I’m weird. I get weird. It doesn’t mean anything about the way I like you.”

“Louis, please don’t—“

“If you say lie or something that could be twisted around to become lie, then don’t,” Louis says firmly. “I’m being honest with you. I’m just—I’m pretty awful to all the people I like at some point; it’s a character flaw.”

“A character flaw?” Niall repeats and his lip curves just slightly - just enough for Louis to feel like he can breathe again.

Louis shrugs. “What can I say?” He jokes, watching as Niall smiles and shakes his head. “So, are we going to redo that dinner or are you going to chuck tomatoes at me because you really only have two options, and those are them.”

Niall considers him for a moment, a bright smile on his face as the sun reflects off his burning skin. Louis is going to tie a tube of sunscreen to all of Niall’s pants if he doesn’t start putting some on himself.

“I’d hate to waste my tomatoes and since I don’t have any other choice, I guess we’ll redo dinner,” Niall says, smirking at Louis. He throws a small cherry tomato at Louis anyway, laughing before he turns back to the plant and plucks off the ones that are ready.

Louis pops the cherry in his mouth, takes a bite, and then promptly spits it back out. “Is there something on here that could kill me?” He asks. “Because you’re allowed to say no to dinner, you really don’t have to resort to this.”

“To what? And no, I don’t put anything on my plants. What are you talking about?”

Louis eyes his suspiciously but resumes eating the tomato anyway. He stares at Niall as he does it, waiting to see if there’s any sort of glee or quiet expectation. Niall mostly looks concerned, like Louis’ lost his head.

“You can’t take back going to dinner with me,” Louis informs him. “There’s not a receipt on this. No returns, no exchanges. Sorry.”

Niall laughs and shakes his head. “You weren’t joking when you said you’re weird.”

“Okay farmer, keep the insults to yourself,” Louis teases, as he steals another tomato.

+

This time when Niall opens his front door, he’s much happier. His smile stays on his face and he doesn’t stumble in his haste to rush back to the kitchen to make it look like anything other than a date. Instead, he actually greets Louis, breathing it out like a sigh. He does check over Louis’ shoulder though, pushing up on his toes to see behind him.

“They’ve dropped me off and now they’re leaving.”

“I was just checking,” Niall mutters, as he pulls the door open wider for Louis. “I’m not finished cooking yet. Almost, but not yet.”

“You didn’t have to cook. We could have gone somewhere,” Louis says, following Niall into the kitchen. “Not like I’m complaining because it’ll be nice to eat something that hasn’t been grilled, unless you grilled, which is fine. Grilling food is fine but that’s pretty much all we’ve had since we got to the cabin and Liam thinks he’s a grill master but he tends to burn everything.”

“Well, I’ve checked and nothing is burnt. But I did use the grill a bit, sorry.”

Louis shrugs. “Well, I’ll have to try it and then I’ll give you my grade. Should we do it like they do in school, or should this be like a restaurant review? Give you stars.”

“How about like a movie? You can give me tomatoes or decide if they’re fresh or not, whatever it is they do to figure that out,” Niall says, smiling.

Louis has no idea how the tomato rating of movies works besides that the more tomatoes the better . Glancing around, Louis thinks Niall will be certified fresh with all the effort that he’s put in tonight. There’s a pitcher of lemonade on the table, sitting in the middle of mounds of food. There’s so much it looks like a holiday.

It looks like he’s prepared stuff that he’s grown himself. There’s summer squash with grilled peppers – that isn’t burnt. He drops a plate of fish onto the table before he winces and asks Louis if that’s okay because he’s also made chicken as backup since not everyone likes fish, but he caught the fish himself and—

“You caught this fish yourself?” Louis asks.

Niall’s eyes widen as he nods and his cheeks flush bright red like his shoulders in the afternoon sun. “Yeah, of course. I—don’t know. It feels important to try and handle as much of your meat as you can. I’m really not very good about it though. I mostly do the catching and then there’s a guy in town that does the rest. I don’t—I don’t like the rest of it,” Niall explains, rubbing his palms on his jeans. “Do you want a beer?”

“Lemonade is good,” Louis says, pointing towards the jug on the table. It’s still pretty hot out and lemonade is always good on days where Louis has been out in the sun.

“Okay, well everything is ready,” Niall says, waving his hand around. “Oh, wait.”

Louis halts his movement, half standing and half sitting in the chair Niall was pointing at a moment ago. He watches as Niall opens the fridge and grabs a bowl before he drops it down on the table. It’s filled with watermelon cut into cubes. Then he spins around and grabs something that looks like a pie off the counter and throws it into the oven.

“There,” Niall breathes, running his fingers through his hair. “Wash my hands then we’re good to go.”

Louis nods and bounces back up, nudging Niall as he slides in place next to him to steal a bit of soap so he can wash his hands as well. Louis lets Niall rinse his hands off first and resists the urge to shove his hands over his so he can get the good water and Niall can get his leftovers. But this is a date, or it’s supposed to be, and Louis can resist the urge to be a little shit for one night.

“If you don’t like peppers or squash, I’ve got corn and carrots in the warmer. I figured they were safe bets if you had any aversions to anything here on the table,” Niall says when they finally sit down across from each other. He’s holding the bowl of summer squash and Louis thinks he looks terrified of making a mistake like he wants everything to be perfect.

“These are all good. It looks great,” Louis says, smiling. “You did really well. Seriously, so… Relax”

Niall laughs and then nods, handing the bowl over when Louis holds his hands out. He looks relieved and Louis can almost see the stress rolling off his shoulders.

“I wish I understood you,” Louis mutters, dropping squash down on his plate before he sets the bowl back down on the table.

“There’s not much to get,” Niall assures him, smiling as he passes the peppers.

Louis wishes that were true, that Niall was really that simple. To Louis, he’s a puzzle- not one of those one hundred or five hundred piece ones. No, Niall is a one thousand piece puzzle, and no matter how many pieces Louis connects: there’s always more. He’s intriguing and exciting and ridiculous but he makes Louis’ stomach roll in pleasant waves as he listens to him talk. And that’s something.

It’s more than something and Louis is glad that he asked for a redo.

+

After dinner, Niall gives Louis the full tour of the farm. He walks him through the gardens immediately surrounding the house, to show off all the different fruits and vegetables he has planted.

“I’m not very good with the fruit,” Niall explains, shrugging like there’s nothing for him to do. “I have to buy a few anyway. Not really the climate for citrus fruit, but some of the neighbors have apples and peaches, stuff like that, and we do a trade.”

“Sounds neighborly.”

Niall smiles and then continues guiding Louis around. He shows him where the sheep and goats stay, then to the pigpen, before rounding back to the chicken coop. Most of the animals are tucked into the shelters Niall gave them, or wandered off further into the area Niall has fenced off for them. The cows and horses have the same space but the cows are nowhere to be seen. Niall tells him there’s space further away that they like to gather but they always come back because Niall provides the good food.

Louis listens and asks questions where he thinks he should. There’s a lot that Louis doesn’t know and doesn’t understand about running a farm and living in a small town. Niall seems thrilled to be able to talk about it. Louis watches as his eyes light up and his gestures become even more animated as he explains the complexities of keeping their enclosures large enough that they have enough space but he’s able to keep it safe. Louis only feels his eyes glaze over once when Niall explains the differences in pig food but Niall flushes wonderfully when Louis tells him that it’s interesting even though Louis has no idea what it is he’s talking about.

“And this is the stable,” Niall says, sliding open a red barn door to reveal horses.

There’s only one closed up inside of a stall – a pretty one with a deep colored coat and blonde mane. The rest are sort of hanging around like they don’t really want to be stalled up but they don’t want to go outside either. There’s a sandy colored one with a pink spot on her nose that huffs at Louis before she drops her head down into a shiny metal horse trough for something to drink.

“This one is on stall rest,” Niall explains, pointing towards the brown one that’s locked in a stall. “Hurt her leg so I’m forcing her to rest up a bit. The others are always popping in to check on her and keep her company.”

“These are all yours?”

“Most of them. That light colored one is Zayn’s, then there’s a black and white spotted one that belongs to a neighbor that doesn’t have the room to keep her. They pay me and I let their horses stay here,” Niall explains, leaning against a post.

“Zayn pays you to keep a horse for him?”

“No, other people pay me,” Niall corrects. “Zayn doesn’t.”

“How come?”

“Well, he fixes almost all of my machinery for free when there’s problems, so it’s sort of like an exchange of goods.”

“That seems to happen a lot around here,” Louis comments, reaching out tentatively to touch a black horse that isn’t paying him any attention but isn’t giving him the death glare so Louis assumes that it’s safe. “How do any of you make money when everything is free?”

Niall shrugs like he’s never thought about it before. “Things have a way of working out around here,” he says, like it makes all the sense in the world. “And anyway, Ellie – Zayn’s horse - used to be my horse but Zayn sort of fell in love with her, so she’s his now. One of the reasons he’s always crashing here.”

“Ellie is the light one you said?” Louis asks, turning to see Niall nod his head. “Hmm, explains the evil eye she’s giving me, then.”

“You’re awfully paranoid,” Niall laughs, pushing off the wall and coming to join Louis by the black horse that doesn’t seem to care about much of anything. “Are you always like this?”

“No, I think there’s something in the water around here.”

“Ah, I forgot about when we all agreed to add paranoia in.”

“Did you add some kind of amnesia in as well? Maybe that’s why you’re not remembering.”

Niall laughs and shakes his head. “Don’t know what I’m going to do with you,” he mutters.

“Still no receipt on this thing,” Louis tells him. “No take backs.”

“Could exchange you for Harry,” Niall jokes, grinning. Louis does his best to look scandalized at the suggestion. “Come on, there’s still more I want to show you.”

“How can this place have any more?” Louis wonders because he barely affords his apartment while Niall owns an unimaginable amount of land and a big house. He probably owns this entire town but he lets other people stay here out of the kindness of his heart. “How do you even have all this?”

“Family. Luck, I don't know,” Niall says. He shrugs when Louis stops moving and stares at him. “I know you hate when I say this because you get that look on your face but that’s just the way things are around here. My grandparents used to live here but now it’s mine.”

“Some guy used to live in my apartment before I rented it, and for the first three months it smelled like sweating cheese.”

“That’s definitely the same thing,” Niall laughs, grabbing Louis’ arm and tugging him out of the stables.

+

Niall gives Louis a ride back to the cabin. Louis is surprised by how little he grips any part of Niall’s truck that he can get his hands on because Niall’s driving – which is either a sign that Niall is considering the fear Louis feels of the winding roads or he’s just _that_ used to it.

Liam and Harry are waiting up for him, doing nothing to hide the fact that they’re watching Louis through the cabin’s window. Louis wants to ask Niall to spin the tires so rocks can fly and their big heads will disappear. Instead, he tells Niall that he had a great time and then climbs out of the truck and heads inside.

“You’re back,” Harry cheers, grinning at him excitedly. “How was it? Are you wooed?”

“It was nice,” Louis answers, pulling off his shoes and throwing them into the corner. “He made enough dinner to feed a village, fretted over what he made – everything was either grown in his garden or he caught it himself like some wild lumberjack. He’s only missing the flannel and the beard.”

“Can Niall even grow a beard?” Liam muses, frowning like he’s trying to picture it.

“Did you spend the whole date eating or did something else happen?”

“He showed me around the farm and then we sat on his porch drinking beer and talking some more. That’s about it.”

Harry nods. “So that’s it? You don’t have any other details?” He asks, waggling his eyebrows expectantly.

“Nothing happened,” Louis explains, dropping down on the chair with a sigh. He props his feet up on the table, crossing his legs at the ankle. “God, I’m actually kind of tired.”

“You’re tired but nothing happened?” Liam asks.

“Yeah, it’s this weird thing that happens where after being awake for so many hours, your body starts to want sleep at night. So strange,” Louis mumbles. “But nothing happened. He didn’t try to kiss me or anything. He barely touched me.”

“Bet he wanted to,” Harry says.

“Maybe,” Louis agrees. “He’s still ridiculous though. He caught the fish he made. Who does that?”

“Someone who lives in a small town,” Liam says. “It’s probably better for the environment and for himself. Besides, he lives on a farm. They do all kinds of weird things like that.”

“I feel like you call him ridiculous when you want to say how into him you are,” Harry teases.

Louis grabs a pillow and chucks it at him. Harry’s ridiculous too but Louis isn’t into him in the slightest. He’s thinking about canceling their friendship because it does have a receipt and he’s going to find it out of a trash can and give it to anyone who takes friends back. They can have ridiculous Harry.

+

The day is the hottest it’s been in weeks. Sweat rolls down Louis’ face and his shirt is sticking to his chest. It feels like his lungs could cave in; the air is so sticky and heavy. The only thing that keeps him going is the knowledge that on the other side of this rock bank is a swimming hole a spring lets out in so the water is cool and just what he needs on a day like today.

Louis doesn’t even take his shirt off, just walks into the creek until it’s deep enough that he can drop forward. It feels like steam is rolling off his body when he surfaces.

“God, this is perfect,” he groans, keeping every inch of his body besides his head under the water. “A little freezing cold but perfect.”

“Why is there heat?” Liam asks, making a face like he doesn’t even understand why he’s asking that.

“At least we’re here on the hottest day of the year instead of lying in front of Liam’s fan,” Harry comments, finally joining them. He’s managed to change his shoes so he can walk on the rocks without wincing and he’s not wearing his shirt. Louis thinks he’s pretty smart right about now. He’s got the right idea of things.

Louis trudges back to the bank and throws his own shirt off. It’s not lying flat and neat like Harry’s so it can dry in the sun; it’s wrinkled and in a bundled mess but it’s off and now Louis can submerge himself once more and imagine that he’s in a place that isn’t going to be a melted puddle of goo by the end of the night. Nothing outside of the water is going to survive, Louis is sure of it.

They’re there for an hour before Louis starts to hear the sound of a car on the gravel. He rolls his eyes and feels his body sag at losing this little piece of paradise to strangers. He only hopes it’s not a family with small children who will scream and splash around.

Louis recognizes the truck pulling up instantly and turns, giving Liam a look of confusion.

“After we dropped you off yesterday, we ran into Zayn in town. Actually, we saw him walking down the street and Harry screamed stop, so I stopped because I thought I was going to hit something with my car. He was so loud,” Liam explains, shaking his head. “Anyway, we saw Zayn and you know how Harry is, he’s pretty adamant that Zayn’s his soulmate or something and I think Zayn finds the whole thing endearing so we invited him and Niall up here.”

“Niall was with me.”

“Well, they’re a package deal,” Liam says. “Besides, we’re trying to ensure you get a third date since we ruined the first one.”

“Shut up,” Louis hisses, slapping water at Liam. “This is not a third date.”

“Obviously, Harry and I are here,” Liam says with a roll of his eyes.

Louis turns in time to see Niall pulling his shirt over his head and he wishes Liam would shove him under or something. Niall still doesn’t look like he knows what sunscreen is, or maybe his skin is just naturally flushed and Louis doesn’t want to think about Niall and flushed skin. Louis has to grip his swim trunks so he doesn’t splash Niall when he wades over towards him. Louis doesn’t want to _embarrass_ himself by doing something foolish and childish over a slight possible maybe kind of crush.

“Hi,” Louis squeaks, wincing at the shrill of his voice. “Um, hi.”

“Hold on,” Niall says, lowering himself under the water. When he pops back up, there’s water dripping down his face and he has to brush the hair out of his eyes. Louis wants to kick himself for three days because how does this happen to him? “There better. Hi.”

“Hi,” Louis repeats, still staring at the water on Niall’s neck. It’s a very nice neck, as far as necks are concerned.

Niall laughs. “Hi.”

“Oh boy,” Liam mutters and Louis turns to scowl at him. “I’m going to go see if Zayn and Harry have made it further along in their conversation. Don’t want to spend my time as the fifth wheel with one pairing too often, now do I?”

“I hope a rock slides into your shoes,” Louis calls after him. “He’s a pest.”

“The best friends usually are.”

“I’d like ones that aren’t. However, I don’t have those friends,” he says. “I’m sure someone out there has those friends and I’m so envious of them that I think I could scream.”

“You can have Zayn, he’s not a pest,” Niall says, smiling. “Though, he’ll eat all of your food and change the presets on your car radio when he thinks you’re not looking. But he’ll help feed your pigs, so that’s nice.”

“Oh, my pigs,” Louis says. “I don’t have any of those.”

“Then maybe he’s not the friend for you.”

“Depends on what kind of presets he puts on my radio if we’re being honest.”

Niall grins at him but doesn’t say anything, just keeps looking at Louis with that smile on his face that makes Louis feel like he could explode at any moment.

“Why are you smiling at me like that?” Louis asks, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. “Is there a leaf in my hair? Because that happened to Harry earlier and it’s not some weird fashion statement on either of our parts, just our luck swimming in this creek.”

“You’re nervous,” Niall notes. “Nice to not be the only one.”

Louis exhales and feels his shoulders sag a bit. “Yeah, maybe,” he says. He’s ready to say something else when he catches sight of something in the corner of his eye. Harry is trying to climb a rock face that leads to a tree with a bit of rope attached. “This is the moment I feared most when we came to a small town.”

“Harry climbing rocks?”

“No, I can’t explain it. It probably sounds—I never ask this question, but is that safe? Harry’s mom will literally kill me if he even comes home with a pulled muscle. Mostly because he’s awful when he’s injured and no one wants to deal with that.”

Niall shrugs. “Don’t know. People do it all the time, though. It’s bound to come down at some point and I can’t say if it’ll be for Harry, but I don’t think he’ll pull a muscle,” Niall says, smirking at Louis.

Louis considers him for a moment before he nods, grabbing Niall’s arm. “All right, come on then.”

“Where we going?”

“To tempt fate, of course,” Louis says, grinning at him as he tries to swim and tug Louis to the rock that Liam is helping Harry up.

+

Despite the heat of the day, they decide to light a fire that night. They’re using every bit of firewood that Liam’s grandpa has stored away, along with sticks they found in the woods. It’s fairly massive but it’s not as hot as it was before the sunset.

Niall and Zayn came back with them. Apparently, they’re prepared and crafty, showing up to the creek with a change of clothes just in case, like someone – Harry, Liam, and Zayn – planned this. Louis doesn’t mind though because it’s nice.

They made food and talked, raided the woods and everything Liam’s grandpa forgot to lock up from Louis until they collapsed in front of a fire in chairs and benches and other furniture that they dragged outside to comfortably fit all five of them. Harry and Zayn slipped away into the cabin ages ago and Louis has five dollars on what they’re doing in the beating pool that no one has started. Niall’s tucked in next to him, feet pulled under himself, while Liam is fast asleep in the chair across the fire.

“Thanks for letting us come back here,” Niall says, blinking sleepily at Louis with a soft smile on his face. “And for letting us sleep here, it seems. I don’t think that was the plan, though, but thanks.”

“Harry would probably kill me if we try and separate them right now, so you’re welcome on his behalf,” Louis says, making Niall laugh. “Anyway, it was nice. I’m glad you were here.”

“Yeah, it was nice. Except for the bit where we thought you hit your head on that rock.”

“I hit my head on something.”

“Probably on Liam’s shoe,” Niall says. “I told you not to jump immediately after him.”

“The blame is on him. He should watch his feet.”

“We shouldn’t go cliff diving until you learn the rules,” Niall teases, knocking his shoulder against Louis’. “I don’t even think there are rules but we’ll have to make some just for you.”

“You’re mistaken if you think I follow the rules.”

“No, I think watching you take an ax to the lock on that shed proved that.”

“Hey, it didn’t work,” Louis cries, trying to defend himself. “Liam’s grandpa hates me and loves locks. I love locks too. Taught Liam how to pick them when we were eleven but I think that one is one they use in a bank or something.”

“Of course it is,” Niall agrees easily.

He’s staring at the fire and Louis stares at the side of his face. The firelight is soft on Niall’s skin, highlighting the curves of his profile. Louis almost wants to touch, wants to reach his hand out and trace, to feel it under his fingers until it’s seared to his memory.

“Glad you’re not nervous anymore.”

“Yeah,” Louis mutters, breathing out slowly. “You make me nervous a bit. I’m hardly ever nervous, at least not in an outwardly way. I try pretty hard to keep it hidden.”

“You don’t have to be nervous,” Niall tells him. “And you really don’t have to keep it hidden.”

“Maybe.”

Niall wets his lips and nods, his eyes scanning Louis’ face for a second. “Can I do something?”

“Do what?”

Niall glances at Louis' lips before he says, “kiss you.”

Louis breathes out and nods, watching with wide eyes before he leans forward and meets Niall halfway. It’s the shortest kiss of Louis’ life—he barely feels the pressure of Niall’s lips before Niall pulls back. He looks at Louis for a second, his blue eyes searching for something, and Louis has no idea what it is he’s looking for before Louis slides his palm across Niall’s cheek, sliding it down to the back of his neck so he can pull him in and kiss him again.

Second kisses are always better than the first, after the awkward wonderment of kissing someone brand new. Louis is determined to make this the best kiss of Niall’s life—as long as Niall hasn’t been spending his free time kissing some sort of Olympic medalist in kissing then Louis thinks he’s doing pretty well. Niall has his hand gripping Louis’ thigh and the other bunching his shirt up like he doesn’t know what to do when Louis’ tongue meets his.

Niall’s lips are slightly chapped and he almost tastes like the fire. His hands are slightly rough as he cups Louis’ cheek.

Time feels like it’s at a standstill until someone curses from across the fire. Niall pulls away abruptly, breathing out harshly as they both turn to see Liam tripping over his chair.

“Sorry, sorry,” Liam mutters. “I was trying to be quiet. Ignore me. Ignore me, I’m going to be. You two continue.”

Niall laughs and his cheeks flush. “Good night,” he says. “So that was…”

“Excellent,” Louis says, leaning forward to kiss the corner of Niall’s mouth. “I give it a ten.”

“Excellent rating,” Niall comments, laughing as he kisses Louis again. “You ready to turn in?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Niall smiles at him and grabs Louis’ hand, pulling him up and guiding him towards the cabin.

+

Louis thinks he could cry when Zayn announces that his car is finally finished. He almost wants to pull out a red carpet and dedicate songs in Zayn’s honor. Maybe he’ll set up some kind of town function like the pig race to honor Zayn and his amazing mechanical skills.

“I told you it’d be ready by the time you leave.”

“Yeah, but I’ve had actual nightmares about this,” Louis tells him, watching as Zayn shakes his head at him. “About this car never being fixed and me being stranded here for the rest of my life.”

Zayn nods and rubs his chin, looking at Louis thoughtfully. “You going to see Niall before you cut out of town?”

“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know,” Louis says because they haven’t talked about it and he doesn’t know if they’re even allowed to make any sort of plans about things.

Zayn rolls his eyes and pulls a pen out of his pocket. He flips Louis’ receipt over and scribbles something down before handing it over to Louis. “That’s Niall’s number. I know you two haven’t exchanged them, despite him constantly reminding himself to actually get your number, so there. Use it.”

“I will,” Louis promises, grinning as he carefully folds the paper up and shoves it into his pocket. “Thanks.”

“You know there’s a tractor pull tonight.”

“A what?”

“A tractor pull.”

“Is this another one of those things that happen here where the name is also the definition of the event?” Louis asks. “Is this exactly like the pig race?”

“No, there’s no pigs involved,” Zayn says. “There’s tractors and beer.”

“I don’t understand this place,” Louis mutters, frowning as he tries to picture what happens at a tractor pull. It has to be literal. It has to involve tractors being pulled somehow but it’s hard to know in which way they’re being pulled and how.

“You should come and bring your friends.”

“Bring my friends?”

Zayn nods. “Bring your friends.”

“All right,” Louis agrees. “I’ll let Harry know that you want to see him.”

Zayn smirks at him. “Take care of your car,” he says before he wanders off. Louis watches him go so he can be alone when he throws himself onto the car in his happiness at it being complete, at it being put back together again and in better shape than it’s ever been.

A small town killed his car and then put it back together again. It’s the greatest story of Louis’ generation, he’s sure.

+

A tractor pull, as Louis can clearly see before him, is exactly what the name says. Small towns are very literal places; he’s slowly beginning to learn to that fact. There are tractors being pulled by bigger tractors and smaller tractors. He hears people saying that this is just the appetizer because tractors are going to pull stuff that’s apparently heavier than tractors.

It seems small towns will do absolutely anything to have an excuse to drink.

Louis can get behind that. He grabs himself a beer and leaves Liam with a pretty girl named Amy. Zayn and Harry are off somewhere, probably in Liam’s car doing things that’ll make Liam’s ears turn red in a mix of anger and exasperation and embarrassment. As long as it’s not Louis’ car, he doesn’t really care where Harry decides to take Zayn.

Louis wanders until he spots Niall. He’s a bit a ways away, with a group of people that he seems to know and get along with. Louis leans against a hay bale and watches him, takes in the way Niall is leaning against the wheel of a tractor with a drink in his hand. He’s wearing a cowboy hat and has a scarf wrapped around his neck.

It’s the most ridiculous that Louis has ever seen him before. He can’t stand it. He can’t stand how wonderful he finds it, how he finds himself smiling as he watches Niall be completely ridiculous with his friends.

Instead of standing around like a creep, Louis continues wandering around. There’s much of the same food that there was last time. Nothing stands out but a pretzel does sound nice.

Louis jumps when someone touches his side. He spins around and sees Niall grinning at him, sunglasses tucked into his scarf and he’s still wearing that outrageous hat with a grin on his face that looks like it could split his face in two. Louis doesn’t even let him say hi, just pushes forward and kisses him.

“Hello,” Niall says, adjusting his hat. “Was wondering when you’d be here.”

“Been here. Saw you being absurd on that tractor.”

“Well, who will believe you were at the tractor pull without photographic evidence.”

“Come on, I wanna take you somewhere and have my way with you. And I mean that literally,” Louis says, grabbing Niall’s hand and tugging him away from the crowds. He finds an old shed and presses Niall up against him, kissing him.

Niall laughs but he kisses him back, pushing his hat up to accommodate Louis.

“This whole thing is ridiculous,” Louis says, tugging the hat off entirely because it’s blocking his ability to kiss Niall like he wants to. With the hat out of the way, Louis is able to press Niall up against the building properly, like someone should be when they’re making out against a building. “So ridiculous.”

“Is that, like, code for something?” Niall asks, laughing as he kisses Louis once more. “You say it a lot and I’m started to get mixed signals on what it means

Louis grins at him and nips Niall’s chin. “You shouldn’t look like that in something like this.”

“My clothes?”

“Yes, your clothes. God, do you even look at yourself?”

“Is it bad?” Niall asks and Louis hates the way his mouth turns down.

“No,” Louis says firmly, shaking his head. “You’re just wearing the boots and the hat, and now this fancy scarf. It shouldn’t be _the_ outfit that makes me want to have my way with you behind this shed where every single person in this town and neighboring towns, I’m sure, is at. But I want to.”

“You want to have your way with me?” Niall asks, mouth turning back up into the smile that Louis loves. “What’s stopping you?”

“That hat was, for one thing.”

“That’s off now.”

“So it is.” Louis grins and then cups Niall’s face between his hands and kisses him. Kissing is so much better than tractors. Louis is good at kissing and Niall is excellent at kissing.

+

“I don’t understand how the world works down here,” Louis says, turning his head to the other side to try and see if the shift in his vision will help him process how watching a tractor tug a bunch of sheet metal is entertaining. “Do you think Wikipedia has an article about this? Like, what people were thinking when they let this become a thing?”

“They were thinking there’s nothing else to do around here and this brings people together.”

“I like the mud fight idea you mentioned at the pig race better.”

“It’s not exactly fun but it’s something. It’s just an excuse to have people get together and let people be idiots.”

Louis nods because he can see that, the people being idiots. “So do you have a secret tractor in the pull like you did with the pig? Are you going to suddenly come out the winner at the end of the night.”

Niall laughs and shakes his head. “No, I’m not involved in this one. I drove my truck, not a tractor.”

Louis settles back against the bleachers and stares out at the muddy field in front of him. This kind of thing feels like it’s mostly for the kids, something that younger people can watch and have a good time. There are children screaming and laughing, like it’s the greatest thing in the world, to see a tractor pulling another tractor.

“You gonna come back to my place after this?” Niall asks.

“If you want,” Louis tells him.

Niall leans over and rests his chin on Louis’ shoulder, nodding. He stays like that for a moment before he pulls away, grabbing Louis’ hand so he can thread their fingers together. Louis stares at it, at their fingers intertwined, and breathes out slowly. He’ll need to text Liam and Harry to let them know he’s going back with Niall instead of them. Louis knows Zayn and Harry are somewhere making out, so lost in each other that Louis is sure Harry wouldn’t even know who Louis was if he were interrupted. Liam is nowhere to be found and Louis can only hope he’s not standing awkwardly near Harry and Zayn, third-wheeling or something equally awful.

“Come on,” Louis says, standing and gently tugging on Niall’s hand. “Let’s go now.”

“Yeah, all right,” Niall agrees, allowing Louis to pull away from everything. If you’ve seen one tractor, you’ve seen them all, Louis thinks, and he’s seen thirteen, which has to be some kind of record.

+

Louis finally gets to see what Niall’s bedroom looks like. It feels like a museum, with everything sitting in its proper place. There’s cologne and deodorant on top of the dresser in neat little rows. He doesn’t even have clothes on his floor, though Louis can see the pile of dirty clothes in a hamper next to the bathroom door. His bed is made and soft, covered in a quilt with four pillows at the head. The ceiling fan is already going so it’s cooler than other parts of the house. Louis likes it, likes the little touches he can see of Niall mixed into it all- from the paint to the quilt to the cleanliness.

It’s not until after the animals are taken care of and they’ve finished the sandwiches Niall’s whipped up that they actually get into bed though, silently pulling off their clothes before climbing on opposite sides of the bed.

It’s quiet. Niall doesn’t say anything after he gets into bed, just pulls the blankets up to his chest and breathes out slowly. Louis doesn’t like it, how quiet it is. There’s never any noise in this town until sun up when Niall’s roosters shout their beaks off. Louis has never been good with the quiet so he says, “I’m leaving tomorrow.”

Niall sighs. “Yeah. Tried not to think about that.”

“Yeah. Me too,” Louis admits.

“Maybe your car will break down again and you’ll get to stay a few more days.”

Louis breathes out a laugh and shakes his head against the pillows. “Then Zayn’s not the best mechanic, is he?”

“Yeah,” Niall mumbles, leaning forward until his head comes to rest on Louis’ shoulder. “This doesn’t happen,” Niall adds, after several long minutes of Louis listening to the sound of Niall breathing, feeling it against his own chest.

“What?”

“Finding someone,” Niall says. “Look at where I live, Louis. We don’t have a town sign or anything, but you saw everyone at the tractor pull. And some of those live in neighboring towns. There’s no one. Even less when you’re me.”

“What does that mean?” Louis asks, wrapping his arm around Niall finally so he can comb his fingers through his hair.

“You know what it means,” Niall laughs, soft and breathy.

Louis nods because he supposes that he does understand what Niall means. “You could have Zayn.”

Niall laughs like Niall at that, loud and vibrant, his body shaking with it. “Nah,” he says. “Zayn can have anyone and I don’t want Zayn.”

“Yeah, Harry would probably kill you.”

Louis can feel Niall’s smile against his shoulder. He can also feel when it disappears when Niall’s hand comes to rest on his ribs. He runs his fingers along Louis’ skin; it tickles a bit but Louis isn’t going to tell him to stop.

“Just sucks is all,” Niall says eventually.

Louis nods but doesn’t say anything because he doesn’t know what to say. He tilts his head so it’s resting on top of Niall’s and then grabs the hand on his ribs with his free hand and holds onto Niall. It’s all he can do. He’s leaving tomorrow and this is all he can offer him.

Louis hasn’t thought about how he’s leaving, how tomorrow he’ll have packed bags and he’ll leave and go back to his world, to his life. Niall’s not there. Niall’s here. Niall’s here with winding roads and large expanses of land dedicated to the animals, to the crops that feed him and people of his town. Niall’s where Louis can see the stars, every last one of them. He’s not back home where even in the middle of the night Louis can hear sirens and people shouting, where the space between buildings is almost non-existent and grass is found only in parks that people manufactured. Grass that was grown somewhere else and then imported.

None of that is Niall and Louis’ stomach churns at the thought that he’ll have to leave this all behind tomorrow.

Louis feels when Niall’s hand goes slack in his own when he eventually falls asleep. Louis doesn’t let go, just holds on and closes his own eyes and hopes he can get some sleep in before the damn roosters start up.

+

In the morning, like every morning Louis has shared with Niall, he wakes up alone. Niall’s outside with the animals, moving through his routine like he always does because Niall has herds of animals to look after for. Louis moves to the window and looks for him, watching him until he starts heading towards the house.

Louis meets Niall in the kitchen, smiling at him while Niall tugs his boots off.

“Liam and Harry have my stuff. I texted them last night and Liam said he’s going to take care of it so I don’t have to head back there,” Louis says, watching as Niall nods. “We’re going to meet at noon.”

“That’s in three hours,” Niall says, frowning at the clock on the stove like it’s personally offending him.

“Yeah,” Louis mutters, shrugging when Niall turns to look at him. “They’re going to follow behind me on the drive home, to make sure that if anything happens to my car that I’m not lying on the side of the road waiting for some cowboy to rescue me.”

Niall rolls his eyes but he’s smiling at him when he says, “Come on, I’ll make you breakfast.”

So Niall does, he makes him breakfast that they eat at the table before collapsing on Niall’s couch, Louis more on top of Niall than on the furniture. They kiss and talk about anything besides the fact that Louis is leaving. Neither of them makes any sort of promises or pleas with the other; they just enjoy the time they have together while they still have it.

Time never moves slowly when you want it to, never pauses and stops, and before Louis knows it, he has to peel himself off of Niall so he can get into his car and head to where he’s meeting Liam and Harry. They’ll understand if he’s late but he doesn’t want to keep them waiting and doesn’t want them to come searching for him and finding doing something embarrassing, like wrapping himself around Niall’s leg like a small child.

“So, this is it,” Niall mutters, standing next to Louis’ car.

Louis nods, staring down at the dirt and wishing he knew what to say. Niall’s looking at him when he looks up, smiling softly and Louis kisses him because he can, because he wants to, and because this is probably the last time he’ll ever get to do it again unless his car really does shit out on him again.

Louis has never been good at goodbyes so he kisses Niall once more, hoping it’s one he won’t forget and then climbs into his car and drives off.

He doesn’t want to make this into a big deal. It’s not a big deal. Niall’s a boy he met on a trip. A boy he spent some time with and it’s fine. Niall’s here and Louis is there and that’s just how it is. No need to make any big deals out of things.

Niall is still standing where Louis left him and he has to breathe out slowly, readjusting his grip on the steering wheel. When it feels like his heart isn’t going to pound of his throat, he makes a right and heads towards his friends.

This is it. This is goodbye.

++

Louis tries not to shove people out of his way on his walk home. It’s drizzling slightly and the sun is still shining. People have umbrellas out and they’re taking up sidewalk space that Louis needs because he’s not some sort of animal that is willing to risk other people’s eyes to avoid his hair getting wait from the rain that’s not even really rain.

He’s almost to his building when he spots a familiar figure standing outside of his apartment building, hand pressed to the buzzer. He’s staring up at the building like he’s waiting for Louis to pop out of one of the windows.

“Are you lost, cowboy?” Louis asks, leaning against the post at the bottom of the stairs on his porch.

Niall turns and smiles. “Am I late?” Louis shrugs because he has no idea. “It’s kind of confusing driving around up here and I made a couple wrong turns. Actually, you’re late, aren’t you?”

“You can navigate roads covered in dirt and rocks that make no sense, without any sort of indicator as to where you are besides the curves in the road and the trees along the shoulder, but this is hard?”

Niall shrugs and Louis sighs as he bounds up the stairs and throws himself at Niall, wrapping his arms around him and kissing him like he’s thought about doing for weeks, since the last time they saw each other.

“Good to see you too,” Niall laughs, rubbing Louis’ back.

“How long did Harry say to give him with Zayn before we have to have a group reunion?”

“He said don’t bother him tonight but we’re allowed to call tomorrow after three.”

Louis groans as he pulls away, tugging his keys out of his pocket. “That’s hardly enough time.”

Niall rolls his eyes and kisses Louis again like he doesn’t know how to stop. Louis likes it. “Come on, show me your place.”

“All right, but you should know that I left my chickens with the neighbor,” Louis says, getting his key in the lock. “The cows are with my mom, and the horse—“

Niall shoves him into the building and Louis laughs before he throws himself onto Niall once more.


End file.
